American siblings find estranged Turkish father after series of family feuds

ISTANBUL

The Jacksons with Turkish businessman Pırlant (C)

The late mother of Chicago-born Candice Jackson and Henry Kevin Jackson has been telling them her estranged husband was a Greek shipowner, but the brother and sister have found out he was actually a Turkish businessman, thanks to the man’s ongoing feud with his own brother.

According to the report published by Demirören News Agency on Nov. 11, Turkish citizen Kasım Pırlant moved to the United States in 1973 and started to work as a waiter at a restaurant in Chicago.

Rising quickly in the business, Pırlant bought his own restaurant and also entered the real estate sector in the 1970s. His rise continued in the 1980s, during which he bought nine shopping malls in Illinois.

The man returned to Turkey in the early 2000s to spend his last years. He became a subject for national media when he made millions of dollars’ worth of investments in the western Turkish province of İzmir.

It was where Candice Jackson, 36, and Henry Kevin Jackson, 30, traveled nearly 9,000 kilometers to find the man they claimed to be their father.

Finding his estranged brother for DNA

The brother and sister’s mother, Carolyn Jackson, had told them before she died in 1999 that their father left them. “He is a shipowner in Greece, he lives there,” the mother had said.

The two siblings visited the premises their estranged father once frequented or worked, like the Chicago Club, to reveal his full identity and to find him wherever he is.

Finally, they concluded their father was Turkish, not Greek, and met Pırlant twice in İzmir.

The ailing man, who had a stroke last summer and was partly paralyzed, told them he “cannot legally accept them as his children,” which forced the brother and sister to take legal action against him.

The man also refused to provide a DNA sample for a paternity test, so the Jacksons found another way: They reached out to Pırlant’s estranged brother. As he had an ongoing family feud with Pırlant, he happily agreed to provide the Jacksons the DNA sample they needed.

The test result on Nov. 5 proved with 99 percent of certainty that Pırlant was the biological father of the Jacksons.

Turkish businessman denies claims

Candice Jackson told the agency she has a blurry childhood memory from the mid-1980s when she wanted to buy food and her father told her he would go get it, but never returned.

“My physical features are just like my father, not my mother. I was so emotional when I met him after a long journey,” Henry Kevin Jackson was quoted as saying.

“We do not want his money. We are just offended that he did not accept us, so we sued,” her sister added.

Pırlant’s attorney, on the other hand, insisted that his client was not the father.

“Kasım Pırlant is being stained on baseless and unjust slanders. While we reserve our right to reply, we are continuing the legal work about the claims,” he said.