According to Kurosawa, 50, she and her daughter were discriminated against on the grounds that they were of a different ethnic background. Kurosawa, who has been is Turkey for the last 10 months, contacted the Turkish authorities, including the President’s Office, the Prime Minister’s Office and the Human Rights Commission in Parliament, when she came to Turkey, asking for support for her cause. Kurosawa received an immediate response from the President’s Office, which said her petition had been sent to the Foreign Ministry and that officials from the ministry would deal with the matter, but there is still no development in response to her complaints, she said.
“I want the Turkish Foreign Ministry to contact the authorities in Australia over my case. Why are they covering this up? There is negligence here. I contacted the Turkish embassy and consulate in Australia several times when I was there. However, there has as of yet been no word from the Turkish authorities over my complaints,” Kurosawa told Today’s Zaman.
Meanwhile, a senior diplomat from the Foreign Ministry commented to Today’s Zaman that Kurosawa’s case was on their agenda, adding, however, that ministry officials had tried to reach her on several occasions, but failed to do so.
“We have been aware of her situation since 2007. We have also received the petition sent to us from the President’s Office. We will follow the issue. The consulate in Sydney told us that it was not possible to reach her at her address,” said the diplomat, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
“I am fighting for my daughter and myself. My daughter was born and raised in Australia. My family is there. I want the Turkish authorities to help me. I want the court cases I had filed to be reopened so that the judicial bodies will see we were right in our complaints that we had been mistreated and discriminated against,” says Kurosawa.
Today’s Zaman also asked the Australian Embassy in Ankara about Kurosawa’s complaints, and the ambassador, Ian Biggs, said the embassy has no new information since the issue was raised in February 2013. “These are serious allegations and I understand that they have been referred to the relevant legal authorities in Australia,” said the ambassador.
Kurosawa’s family moved to Australia in 1970 and settled there when she was 15 years old. She worked as an accredited translator, got married and was later divorced. Kurosawa currently holds an Australian passport.
“I have a 19-year-old daughter. In Australia I had a house and a good job. My daughter and I were the only Turks in the neighborhood,” Kurosawa said.
According to Kurosawa, her daughter was often insulted at school by her classmates for being a Turk. “They used to call my daughter ‘barbarian Turk’ or say ‘go back to your country.’ I spoke about the issue with the school administrators but they were unwilling to take action.”
But a bigger problem arose in 2004 when she began receiving phone calls from unknown persons. The callers insulted her and used vulgar language. “I was weary of those phone calls and changed my number several times. But they again found my new number. Then I appealed to the police, asking for help. But they did not help me, so I turned to the courts. The laws in Australia are based on the principle of protecting women and children, but those laws were not applied in our case. Instead of helping me, the [security and legal] authorities remained ineffectual and just referred me to other authorities,” Kurosawa said.
Kurosawa says there is a security risk for her should she and her daughter return to Australia.
“I want Turkey to take me and my daughter under protection. All my life is in Australia. If my life and property were secure, I would not have left Australia after 35 years. They failed to take my daughter from me but they totally turned my life upside down,” said Kurosawa.
In 2006, a case was filed against Kurosawa by the state to take custody of her daughter. “Psychological pressure was placed on my daughter. They took my daughter into a room and asked her bizarre questions such as was I putting pressure on her to cover her head with a headscarf, do I allow her to wear a bikini or if I let her have a boyfriend. That was a very difficult time, but I came out victorious even though that cost me both financially and emotionally,” Kurosawa stated.
The Kurosawa family later relocated to another neighborhood home to immigrants from different ethnic backgrounds. “This did not solve our problems and we decided to move back to Turkey. I cannot believe that I experienced all that trouble. I was an immigrant but a successful woman in Australia. I do not want to place blame on anyone but I think we were discriminated against due to our identity as Turks. The aim was to harass us so that we would leave Australia,” she said.
Today’s Zaman
Mark LowenBBC News, Athens
