Refugee mother overjoyed after reuniting with daughters
Date posted: September 29, 2018
NICHOLAS KEUNG, Immigration Reporter
Refugee Duygu Baris was faced with an agonizing decision over the fate of her children, but in the end it was a choice she didn’t have to make.
The 42-year-old Toronto ophthalmologist was reunited with her two daughters this week after a months-long separation involving multiple countries. Baris had wrestled over whether she should turn the two girls over to authorities in Germany where they had been living temporarily or send them back to Turkey, where their father is in jail for a 2016 coup attempt.
But two weeks after the Star reported Baris’ dilemma, the girls arrived in Toronto with temporary residence permits issued by Canadian officials. They will eventually be given permanent residence status, but it’s just a matter of time.
Baris was granted asylum in Canada last September and has since been waiting for permanent residence status along with permits for the daughters she was forced to leave behind in Istanbul. Despite a travel ban, the girls managed to flee to Germany this summer, but they were required to leave by Sept. 25, or be turned over to German authorities.
“I was going to take Zeynep and Hatice into hiding,” said Baris, who flew to Germany with a special refugee travel document on Monday with the plan to take the girls to Senegal, where her friends could shelter them. But she was pleasantly surprised on arrival in Berlin that they had got their visas already.
“I am so grateful to the Star and to the Canadian government for reuniting us in Canada, so we can be together in a safe place,” she said.
According to Baris’ asylum claim in Canada, both she and her husband, an internal medicine doctor, are longtime followers of the teachings of the outlawed Fethullah Gulen or Hizmet Movement, which the Turkish government has blamed for the failed 2016 coup. The couple worked at a Hizmet-affiliated hospital and their children attended Hizmet schools.
Baris claimed that after the attempted coup, her husband was arrested and charged with participating in a terrorist group. He was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in jail.
With only enough money to pay smugglers to take one person out of Turkey, she said she wasn’t about to let her daughters take the risk. Although the girls could seek asylum in Germany, they would have been placed in state care and Baris feared they could potentially be separated from their mother forever.
“There are many Turkish refugees in Canada in the same situation and separated from their families. I hope Canadian officials can use their discretion and do the same thing for them to be together,” said Baris. “I’m still missing my husband. My daughters are missing their father. Hopefully, he can join us soon.”
The Atlantic Institute, GA, is organizing a conference in partnership with the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel. The conference’s main focus is non-violent peacebuilding, it is titled “Fostering Dialogues in Education, Ethics, and Non Violent Peacebuilding: Global Social and Religious Movements Today.”
‘Hizmet is a social movement worldwide, that has a heart, and it’s always from the heart.’
Hizmet works around the world to overcome poverty, and they do it in a very unique way, I think. In some ways, in a model way that could be emulated by others.
Daily Trust Editorial: In Turkey, fresh affront on democracy
The AKP government, under emergency rule, has taken over hundreds companies, seized the assets of businessmen and shut down institutions linked to the movement. Despite the fact that Gülen denied the accusation and called for an international investigation into the coup attempt, President Erdoğan – calling the coup attempt “a gift from God” – and the Turkish government launched a widespread purge aimed at cleansing sympathizers of the movement.
Construction of Turkish hospital in Haiti begins
Kimse Yok Mu (Is Anybody There), a Turkish charitable association, has laid the foundation for a 46-bed hospital in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince’s Croix-des-Bouquets district, which has a population of 500,000. An estimated 200,000 people died in Haiti, one of the poorest countries in the world, in January when a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck. Hunger […]
Turkish police to detain another woman immediately after delivery
A group of police officers awaited outside a private hospital in Yalova province of Turkey in order to detain a woman who had given birth several hours earlier, according to a tweet by MağduriyetlerTR account.
Turkey donation by Turkish Cultural Center Albany
Joanne Dwyer, left, director of food industry relations and business development for the Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York, Veysel Ucan, center, executive director of the Turkish Cultural Center Albany, and State Assemblyman Bob Reilly participate in a news conference on Tuesday at the Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York in Albany. Members […]
Latest News
Turkish inmate jailed over alleged Gülen links dies of heart attack in prison
Message of Condemnation and Condolences for Mass Shooting at Bondi Beach, Sydney
Media executive Hidayet Karaca marks 11th year in prison over alleged links to Gülen movement
ECtHR faults Turkey for convictions of 2,420 applicants over Gülen links in follow-up to 2023 judgment
New Book Exposes Erdoğan’s “Civil Death Project” Targeting the Hizmet Movement
European Human Rights Treaty Faces Legal And Political Tests
ECtHR rejects Turkey’s appeal, clearing path for retrials in Gülen-linked cases
Erdoğan’s Civil Death Project’ : The ‘politicide’ spanning more than a decade
Fethullah Gülen’s Vision and the Purpose of Hizmet
In Case You Missed It
New book examines efforts to link Gülen to every probe
Abant Platform urges government, protesters to exercise common sense
Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel honors Fethullah Gulen with Peace Award
TUSKON brings together businesswomen from Turkey, Russia
Archbishop Tutu receives Gülen peace award
Post-coup Turkey sliding into terror regime: Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk
Russian envoy’s murderer attended sermons of controversial pro-Erdoğan cleric