An Australian man of Kurdish origin is begging his government for a passport or temporary travel document to help him flee a refugee camp in Iraq besieged by fighters from the Islamic State.
“Right now my life is in danger,” said Renas Lelikan.
“I’m an Australian citizen,” he added. “Australia has to do something for its citizen.”
But so far, the Australian government has said no.
According to Lelikan and his defense attorney in Melbourne, Australian authorities rejected Lelikan’s passport application after ruling that he posed a national security risk.
Lelikan spoke to CNN from a refugee camp in the town of Makhmour in northern Iraq.
ISIS onslaught
For more than 20 years, the United Nations-assisted camp harbored more than 10,000 Kurdish refugees who fled the war between Kurdish separatists and Turkish security forces in neighboring Turkey.
But in the summer of 2014, the refugees faced a new threat, when ISIS militants captured Makhmour.
It was part of an an offensive that briefly routed Kurdish militias and threatened the nearby city of Erbil, capital of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region. Eventually, Kurdish Peshmerga fighters supported by guerillas from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and U.S. airstrikes succeeded in wrestling back control of the town.
Today, Makhmour stands just a few kilometers away from active ISIS front lines.
“A couple times a week, the Islamic State terrorists target the refugee camp with rockets,” said Lelikan. An attack several weeks ago killed a woman and wounded at least two civilians in the camp, he added.
Application refused
Earlier this year, Lelikan applied for a new Australian passport from the Australian Embassy in Baghdad.
Lelikan’s defense attorney read an excerpt to CNN from what she said was an official Australian government document rejecting her client’s passport application.
“Mr. Lelikan would likely engage in politically motivated violence or act in support of politically motivated violence if he were to travel using an Australian passport,” the Australian authorities wrote, according to Jessie Smith of the Stary Norton Halphen Criminal Lawyers law firm in Melbourne.
sIn an emailed statement to CNN Friday, a spokesperson for Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade wrote: “For privacy reasons, we do not comment on individual passport applications. However, the Government will apply our robust national security laws equally to any Australian supporting terrorism or a terrorist organization. The Government does not want Australians participating on either side of the conflicts in Syria and Iraq.
“The Government has consistently — and in the strongest terms — discouraged Australians from traveling to Iraq. The Smartraveller advice for Iraq is ‘do not travel.’ The travel advice also states that, due to the challenging security environment in Iraq, our Embassy’s ability to provide assistance to Australians is extremely limited. The Government has routinely requested that travelers take personal responsibility for travel choices.”
Terror conviction
Lelikan — an ethnic Kurd who became a naturalized Australian citizen in 2004 — has a troubled history that includes a terrorism conviction in France.
According to a French court document seen by CNN, Lelikan was arrested in the Netherlands in 2007 on suspicion of having links to the PKK. The European Union, the U.S., Australia and the PKK’s arch-enemy Turkey all list the Kurdish militant group as a terrorist organization.
In 2011, a French court gave Lelikan a three-year suspended jail sentence after convicting him of participation in a terrorist organization. By his own account, Lelikan used a relative’s passport to flee France in 2011. He eventually settled in Iraq.
Lelikan denies that he’s a guerrilla fighter with the PKK. He claims he’s a journalist who has spent years reporting on the armed Kurdish movement, which has battled the Turkish government for much of the last 30 years. His defense attorney concedes that photos on social media of Lelikan carrying a Kalashnikov rifle and wearing ammunition belts have not helped her client’s reputation.
“We acknowledge that there are many allegations against him of very long involvement with the PKK,” said Smith. She argued that the government should allow Lelikan to return to Australia to face prosecution for possible crimes.
“Sure, prosecute him,” she said. “Bring him home and he will be the subject of Australian law and we take no issue with that. Our concern foremost is for his safety.”
Hard line
The Australian government has taken a hard line in an effort to stop its citizens from traveling to fight in the cross border war ravaging Iraq and Syria. Canberra has canceled the passports of several Australians accused of traveling to the Middle East to join ISIS.
Australia has also contributed warplanes and hundreds of air force personnel to the U.S.-led air campaign against ISIS.
But Australian authorities have made an exception, with the repatriation of Adam Brookman. The Australian now faces terrorism charges for suspected ISIS links after he voluntarily returned from the Middle East to Australia last July. Criminal defense attorney Smith says her firm is also defending Brookman — though details of the court case are still being worked out.
Unlike ISIS, the PKK is a strictly secular movement. It is also arguably the most effective fighting force battling ISIS. Washington has supported PKK-linked fighters in Syria with both air strikes and weapons supplies.
But the stranded Australian’s defense attorney argues her government should help Lelikan for a more basic reason.
“It’s fundamentally a question of human rights,” says Smith. “If Lelikan dies if ISIS over runs the camp, the consequences are going to be enormous.”