This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 12 ANKARA 000591 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR G/TIP, G, INL, INL/CTR, DRL, PRM, IWI 
DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/SE, EUR/PGI 
DEPARTMENT FOR USAID 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KCRM PHUM KWMN SMIG KFRD ASEC PREF ELAB TU TIP IN TURKEY
SUBJECT: TURKEY: FIFTH ANNUAL TIP REPORT: OVERVIEW 
 
REF: SECSTATE 273089 
 
¶1. (U) Sensitive but unclassified. Please protect accordingly. 
 
¶2. (U) Post's responses are keyed to questions in Reftel A. 
This is part 1 of 4 (septel).  Embassy point of contact is 
Maria Lane, who replaces David McFarland following the 
submission of this report.  McFarland (rank: FS-04) spent 
approximately 600 hours in preparation of this and reftel TIP 
reports.  Political Counselor John Kunstadter (rank: FS-01) 
spent approximately 10 hours in preparation of this report. 
 
Overview 
-------- 
 
¶A. (SBU) Turkey remains a destination and transit country for 
women and children trafficked for the purposes of sexual 
exploitation and some forced labor.  Though no territory 
within the country is outside government control, porous 
borders and a liberal visa regime provide a comfortable 
environment for traffickers smuggling victims to, within, and 
through Turkey. 
 
There are no reliable estimates of the number of internally 
or internationally trafficked victims.  The Istanbul shelter 
NGO, Human Resources Development Foundation (HRDF), and the 
International Organization for Migration (IOM) combined to 
repatriate sixty-two foreign victims in 2004, up from two 
victims in 2003. In January 2005, IOM repatriated another 
twenty-one victims.   Both organizations agree, however, that 
the number of unidentified victims is much higher.  According 
to MFA-furnished statistics, the government identified 265 
(238 foreign, 27 Turkish) trafficking victims (151 referred 
by Jandarma and 114 referred by Turkish National Police). 
According to MFA Illegal Immigration Department Head Iskender 
Okyay this number is "just the tip of the iceberg". 
 
IOM Chief of Mission Marielle Lindstrom attributes the sharp 
increase to a momentum-gaining prevention, prosecution, and 
protection push by GOT counter-trafficking authorities that 
marks an "impressive and significant change" in the 
government's attitude and effectiveness. 
 
A twelve-bed shelter for TIP victims, dedicated by former 
Secretary Powell and FonMin Abdullah Gul in June 2004, is 
 
SIPDIS 
already overwhelmed by referrals with a waiting list for 
admission exceeding 35 victims.   With no space available at 
the shelter, Turkish National Police (TNP) and Jandarma 
forces are housing victims on a case-by-case basis in 
temporary government guest residences, hotels, or other 
locations. 
 
¶B. (SBU) In previous reporting periods, source countries 
included: Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Bulgaria, Georgia, 
Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Romania, Russia, 
Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.  From January 2004 to 
January 2005, IOM repatriated (victims) to the following 
source countries: Moldova (39), Ukraine (22), Romania (6), 
Azerbaijan (3), Russia (7), Kazakhstan (1), Uzbekistan (1), 
Belarus (2), and Turkmenistan (1).  IOM also repatriated one 
victim from Columbia, a non-traditional source country. 
(Victims) ranged in age from sixteen to eighteen (2), 
nineteen to twenty-five (41), twenty-six to thirty (12), and 
thirty-one to thirty-eight (7). 
 
IOM reported that a majority of victims enter Turkey by air 
through Istanbul or Antalya.  Land and sea routes included: 
international ferries to Istanbul and Trabzon and ground 
transportation from Georgia through Sarp.  Rescued victims 
frequently told IOM that traffickers used the port of Sarp or 
gates on the Syrian border to extend victims' visas. 
 
¶C. (SBU) As in previous reporting periods, most 
foreign-sourced trafficking activity occurred in the Istanbul 
Region (Silivri, Yalova, Edirne, Bursa), Adana Region (Adana, 
Antalya, Mersin, Silifke), Aegean Region (Mugla, Fethiye 
Bodrum, Izmir, Kusadasi, Kutahya), and the Black Sea Region 
(Igdir, Trabzon, Bartin). 
 
A series of high-profile police raids late in the year 
highlighted growing acknowledgment that internally trafficked 
Turkish citizen victims were also forced into prostitution 
(in central Anatolia) and labor (in Turkey's Adana Region). 
Foreign victims interviewed during police screenings or at 
the Istanbul shelter frequently claimed they were confined 
with Turkish citizen women who were also forced into 
prostitution under threats and acts of violence. 
 
According to first-hand accounts, many victims identified 
before the establishment of the Istanbul shelter were 
typically deported from Turkey as illegal immigrants and 
often intercepted by networks of traffickers at the port of 
departure, arrival, or in transit.  Networks often 
re-trafficked the victims to Turkey and other countries in 
the region.  The GOT claims, and IOM and HRDF independently 
confirm, that law enforcement authorities have halted the 
practice of summary deportation of victims. 
 
¶D. (SBU) In December 2004, IOM initiated an ongoing survey of 
trafficking victims with a simple questionnaire designed to 
identify and target public awareness opportunities.  Victims 
referred to the Istanbul shelter are assisted in completing 
the questionnaire, which consists of the following queries 
(IOM is still refining the questionnaire): 
 
QUESTIONS: 
 
1) Did you have access to radio and/or TV?; 
2) If so, what channels, what stations?; 
3) Did you have access to newspapers?; 
4) If so, what newspapers; 
5) Did food items you were given include packaging (possible 
hotline advertising space)?; 
6) What was your mode of transportation in Turkey?; 
7) How would you feel about calling a police emergency number 
for assistance?; 
8) Were you abused by police?; 
9) Were you treated disrespectfully by police?; 
10) If you could warn someone about trafficking, what would 
you say?; 
11) What recommendation would you give us on how to reach 
you?; 
12) Do you think posters/discreet handouts at the port of 
entry would be useful?; 
13) What were the first Turkish words you learned?; 
14) Did you ever visit your embassy or know of friends who 
had visited theirs? 
 
SIGNIFICANT RESPONSES: 
1) Eighty-seven percent of respondents said they had access 
to radio and/or television; 
2) Forty-nine percent of respondents said they watched Kral 
television; 25% watched a Russian-language satellite channel 
(ORT); 
3) No respondent had access to newspapers; 
4) No respondent had access to newspapers; 
5) Twenty-eight percent of respondents said packaging was 
prominent on mineral water; 27% said "no wrapping"; 18% said 
Coca Cola; 
6) Sixty percent of respondents said they were transported by 
private car; 30% by taxi; 
7) Fifty percent of respondents said they would be "ok" with 
calling police; 50% said they wouldn't; 
8) Eighty-seven percent of respondents said police did not 
abuse them; 13% said police did abuse them; 
9) Seventy-five percent of respondents said police treated 
them respectfully; 25% said police treated them with 
disrespect; 
10) Most respondents said they would counsel potential 
victims to stay home; many would use their story as an 
example; 
11) Seventy percent of respondents said they would recommend 
television as the best alternative for reaching them; 10% 
said radio; 10% said police; 
12) Eighty-seven percent of respondents said posters and 
discreet handouts would be helpful; 
13) Answers varied: "Hello"; "How are you?"; "Water"; "Name"; 
"Nice girl"; "What?"; 
14) Seventy-four percent of respondents never visited their 
embassy; 13% had no knowledge of the functions of an embassy; 
and 13% had visited their embassy. 
 
The Danish Embassy will fund an IOM internal rapid assessment 
of the extent of trafficking in Turkish citizen victims.  The 
Turkish MFA updates regularly a TIP reporting section on the 
Ministry's official website at http://www.mfa.gov.tr. 
 
¶E. (SBU) According to IOM Chief of Mission Marielle Lindstrom 
and outgoing HRDF Executive Director Demet Gural, most 
victims enter Turkey willingly and some arrive with knowledge 
that they will work illegally in the sex industry.  HRDF 
shelter psychotherapist Serra Akkaya, however, said most of 
the victims she counseled initially expected to work as 
models, waitresses, dancers, domestic servants, or in other 
regular employment.  Once in Turkey, traffickers typically 
confiscated the victims, personal documents and passports 
and forced victims into confinement where they were raped, 
beaten into submission, and intimidated by threats of 
retaliation against the victims' family members. 
 
In one highly publicized case in Istanbul, a 27-year-old 
victim from Belarus, Vera Krivienia, jumped to her death from 
the sixth floor bathroom window of an apartment building to 
escape her traffickers.  In another highly publicized case, 
Istanbul police in Silivri freed Ukranian victim Tatyana 
Litvinenko, who had moved to Turkey following her husband's 
death.  Litvinenko, was 7-months pregnant when she arrived in 
Istanbul. She told interviewers that she expected to work as 
a baby-sitter or domestic servant.  Instead, she said she was 
forced into prostitution by network organizers who later 
murdered her new-born child.  Litivinenko told interviewers 
her pimps were angered that she wanted more time to care for 
her child.  Murder charges are pending in the case. 
 
IOM provided the following account from a police interview 
conducted after a Russian citizen victim was admitted to the 
Istanbul TIP shelter on November 13.  A December 26 article 
published by Hurriyet News closely tracks the police report. 
According to the article, traffickers sold the victim for 
2000 USD. The victim's story largely repeats other accounts 
we have heard about typical trafficking schemes in Turkey. 
IOM refused to release the victim's name which, for privacy 
reasons, was edited to the initials "AA". 
 
BEGIN TEXT OF TNP DRAFT REPORT: AA is a 22-year-old divorced 
female from Dagestan.  She came to Turkey four months ago 
with a girl friend named L, who promised to find her a job in 
Antalya. 
 
AA states that she knew this friend and her family from 
Dagestan for about a year and a half.  She didn't suspect 
anything about her intentions, she trusted her.  She knew 
that her friend was coming back and forth to Turkey, but she 
didn't know that she had been working here as a prostitute. 
 
AA is the daughter of a family of four.  Her parents were 
divorced when AA was 13 years old.  Her father is an 
electrical technician, who provides some financial assistance 
for the family, but not enough.  Her mother is a surgeon, but 
hasn't practiced medicine in recent years, due to financial 
difficulties in the country and inability to obtain 
employment in her field.  She has a 26-year-old brother in 
Dagestan who works as a technician. 
 
AA studied law, but dropped out of school when she married at 
age 19.  She had a religious wedding.  She is Muslim.  Her 
husband had a 4-year-old daughter from a previous marriage 
and AA quit college to find work and help raise her husband's 
daughter.  They were divorced two years ago, when AA was 20 
years old. 
 
AA was working in supermarkets and different stores, doing 
odd jobs, with a monthly salary of $70-$80.  So when her 
friend offered to help her find a job in Turkey, she 
accepted.  She obtained her passport and her ticket herself. 
 
AA and her friend L entered Turkey through Istanbul and went 
immediately to Antalya.  They stayed together in Antalya for 
two weeks, and L sold her.  AA describes the incident as 
follows: 
 
They went to a disco together.  And after a few hours, L 
disappeared.  AA was scared, asked one of the male friends 
where she was.  The man told her that L left for the hotel, 
and he offered to give her a ride. As soon as AA got in the 
car, he locked the doors and brought her to a house.  He told 
her that her friend L sold her to him and she would be 
working for him from now on, she would be working as a 
prostitute.  When AA objected, he threatened to kill her. 
 
AA had left her suitcase and her passport in the hotel.  She 
asked the man to bring her belongings from the hotel.  The 
man told her that he looked but couldn't find anything.  She 
lost her passport and all her belongings. 
 
There were seven women in the house including AA.  They were 
from Moldova, Ukraine, etc.  They were going to a hotel in 
order to meet their clients for work. 
 
AA doesn't remember the name of the hotel or the name of the 
disco.  She states that they were Turkish names, and she 
couldn't memorize the names since she didn't understand what 
they meant. 
 
Two months after her arrival in Antalya, AA and another girl 
were brought to the hotel together for work.  There were two 
clients.  The two men said they were going to take them to 
the disco.  They put them in a car.  There was another man in 
the car.  The three men started driving them out of Antalya 
and brought them to Sivas.  They told them that they were 
kidnapped and not to panic and not to escape.  They brought 
them to a house.  There were three women from Georgia and a 
Turkish woman in the house.  The pimp was the Turkish woman's 
lover.  The Turkish woman knew the pimp for four years. 
Apparently, he was a friend of her husband's.  Her husband 
had left her one day at that house to work as a prostitute. 
 
About twenty days after she arrived in Sivas, one of the 
girls managed to escape with the money she received from a 
client.  AA tried to do the same, but unfortunately, the 
client called the pimp and told on her, and the pimp came and 
picked her up from the hotel and beat her up very harshly 
when they came back to the house. He stepped on her face with 
his shoes and she lost her hair as she was fighting him.  She 
has short hair now. 
 
The pimp beat AA on many occasions.  He frequently used a 
belt.  She showed big bruises on her arms and stated that the 
bruises looked much better now than before.  AA stated that 
he beat her up only so much to hurt her, but not enough to 
take her to a hospital and pay for her medical expenses, as 
he wanted her to continue to work. 
 
There was the pimp and a bodyguard in the house who were 
watching all their moves in the house - sleeping in the same 
room, following her from room to room, even the bathroom. 
They beat her up if she wanted to stay alone in her room and 
not watch TV, for example.  AA states that either the pimp or 
the bodyguard would wait in the hotel when she went to rooms 
with the clients, and the hotel personnel were also tipped to 
watch the girls closely and make sure that they wouldn't 
escape.  They were also locked in the house where they were 
staying. 
 
The Turkish woman tried to escape, but was stopped by the 
pimp once.  On November 11, the Turkish woman jumped out of 
the balcony of the second floor of the building where they 
were staying and called the police.  The police came at 
night, when everybody was sleeping, including the pimp and 
the bodyguard.  The police arrested them both. 
 
AA states that she was horrified by this experience and was 
deadly afraid of the men - the pimp and the bodyguard.  The 
pimp carried a gun and a knife at all times.  AA states that 
she fought with the men frequently and pleaded with them to 
let her free.   One day, the bodyguard told her that the pimp 
had killed somebody in the past and she'd better watch her 
words.  AA states that she also heard them one night, talking 
amongst themselves about killing her about a month ago. 
 
AA states that her clients sometimes used condoms, sometimes 
they didn't.  But, she insisted on getting an antibiotic, 
Rosephin, from the pimp.  He finally bought her the 
medication from the pharmacy and she gave herself an 
injection in order to prevent infections.  She had learned 
how to give an injection from her mother. END TEXT. 
 
¶F. (U) Jandarma investigations in the Adana Region (Kozan and 
Imamoglu Village) uncovered systematized forced labor in 
cases involving internally trafficked homeless, physically 
and mentally impaired minors and elderly Turkish citizens. 
Jandarma forces identified twenty-one victims and arrested 
eleven landowners. Investigations are ongoing.  News 
accounts, however, suggested this type of "enslavement" is 
widespread. 
 
In typical scenarios, victims were falsely led to believe 
that payment for agricultural work (for male victims) and sex 
work (for female victims) was forthcoming.  Most victims 
reportedly lacked the capacity to understand the terms of the 
agreements pushed on them by their traffickers or the ability 
to seek redress when payment was continuously delayed. 
 
Child Protective Police returned juvenile victims to family 
members.  Jandarma forces remanded elderly victims to state 
shelter facilities if family could not be located.  One 
suspected trafficker currently in custody told reporters, 
"the practice of taking mentally ill men and women into our 
homes as servants has been alive in this region since Ottoman 
times.  Jandarma have always known about this.  I don't know 
why they're doing anything about it now." 
 
Muzaffer Aygun, the Director of Adana's old-age home, told us 
he received sixteen adult victims following the raids.  Of 
those, he said, two were transferred to state facilities in 
another province, three were released on their own 
recognizance and have since returned to the village where 
they worked, and the remainder were released to family 
members.  Victims released to family members either had 
identification cards or were recognized through media 
coverage.  Some had not seen family members for as many as 
eight years.  Patrons were detained in the raids on 201/b 
charges but later released when the victims settled out of 
court for compensation (negotiated on a case-by-case basis). 
 
Turkey is not a significant source country for victims of 
trafficking.  Worldwide, we could identify only one Turkish 
citizen victim.  IOM London's Inger Johanne Schjerven, a 
Senior Policy and Project Development Assistant, provided 
this unofficial report: 
 
BEGIN IOM LONDON REPORT: A Turkish national woman was 
referred to IOM by her solicitor. The case has not always 
been clear cut but the woman claims she was brought to the UK 
under false pretences, and was later forced into prostitution 
and controlled by the family of the man who took her there. 
 
The victim, Miss X, told us she had been persecuted in Turkey 
for having connections with an illegal political organisation 
and wished to leave the country. She also wished to find more 
opportunities and escape cultural expectations of the 
'acceptable female role'. Miss X told us she had been 
sexually abused by her father and uncle from the age of 
eight. Her mother thought it would be better for her to leave 
Turkey. 
 
The landlord of Miss X's family arranged for Miss X to travel 
to the UK to complete an English course and find employment. 
The landlord said he would arrange everything and secure 
travel documents and an invitation from his relatives in the 
UK.  Miss X's mother paid 700 British Pounds for a passport 
and the landlord's family provided all paperwork to obtain a 
six month visa - they also paid for her ticket. They said she 
would stay with their family in London and could pay back the 
money within six months. 
 
Once Miss X arrived in the UK she stayed with her landlord's 
family. It soon became apparent to her that they were 
involved in the striptease, prostitution and drug industry. 
Miss X was ordered to have sex with members of the landlord's 
family - she did not do this, but was raped by the husband of 
one of the family members. The family also introduced her to 
drugs and tried to offer her as 'payment' for their gambling 
debts. Miss X tried to avoid being forced into prostitution 
and asked a man to help her - he took her into his family but 
after being raped by a family member there she felt she had 
no choice but to return to the original family (of the 
landlord). 
 
Miss X was told that she had to pay all the money back that 
she owed them, and that she would have to do this through 
prostitution. She was made to solicit herself in coffee shops 
(gambling houses). If she refused sex she would be beaten and 
the money was given to the owner of the establishment. Miss X 
believes it was also the family's intention to make her drug 
dependent - the women were given drugs for free, to get them 
addicted, and then they would have to pay for them with their 
bodies. If she wanted to refuse a client they would threaten 
to inject her with heroin. She would also be made to go to 
men's houses for sex. She was controlled and monitored by the 
family. 
 
Eventually she managed to escape and alert her solicitor to 
the situation. She was offered assistance by the POPPY 
project. The landlord and family told Miss X's mother that 
she (Miss X) had refused the job they had secured for her and 
that she had entered into drugs and prostitution by choice. 
Miss X is very afraid of the stigma surrounding prostitution 
in Turkey. She is also afraid that she would have no choice 
but to return to her abusive family, as she sees no 
possibility of surviving as a single woman, without family or 
a husband. She also believes that the stigma and isolation 
would leave her open to abuse and further exploitation. END 
REPORT. 
 
¶G. (SBU) The GOT's bid for EU membership and averred 
disappointment with G/TIP's Tier II Watch List ranking fueled 
substantial GOT efforts to demonstrate progress in counter 
trafficking activities at all levels.  MFA DG for Consular 
Affairs and Director of the National Taskforce on Trafficking 
Murat Ersavci told visiting G/TIP Foreign Affairs Officer 
Jennifer Donnelly, "I have to admit that we didn't recognize 
trafficking as a problem, partly out of ignorance and partly 
out of the idea that it was a passing trend.  The government 
is fully aware now and making tremendous progress in the 
fight." 
 
* PREVENTION: Turk Telekom connected Turkey's first 
government-funded toll-free hotline (90-0800-211-6065) for 
victims of trafficking.  In an effort to improve the hotline 
service, the government is currently completing negotiations 
with Turk Telekom to shorten the toll-free number to a 
three-digit format, based on the Jandarma's 156 and the TNP's 
155 (and the US three-digit 911). (MFA Illegal Migration 
Department Head noted that cell phones, a major tool employed 
by pimps and pushers to track and task victims, can be 
adjusted to prevent a victim from dialing regular numbers but 
cannot be manipulated to block emergency three-digit calls.) 
The new TIP hotline number for domestic calls will be 111. 
 
* PROTECTION: Six months after Turkish FonMin Abdullah Gul 
and former Secretary Powell dedicated Turkey's first shelter 
for victims of trafficking, a waiting list of at least 35 
victims overwhelmed the 12-bed facility.  To temporarily 
board waiting victims, the government provided police 
guesthouses, shelters for elderly citizens and abused women, 
and hotels. Where these options were unavailable, some local 
law enforcement officers found accommodation for victims at 
their personal expense. 
 
* PROSECUTION: As part of pre-EU accession reforms, the TGNA 
approved and Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer signed 
sweeping revisions to the Turkish Penal Code and Code of 
Criminal Procedures, including expanded investigation 
procedures in TIP cases and stiffened punishments for human 
traffickers and their accomplices.  The new provisions are 
effective April 1, 2005.  The new law specifically defines 
human trafficking and prescribes penalties that range from 
eight to twelve years of imprisonment (up from five to ten 
years in earlier versions of the law).  The government raised 
the minimum imprisonment standard to eight years because, 
under Turkish law, offenders sentenced to seven years of 
imprisonment or less have the option to avoid imprisonment by 
converting part or all of their sentence to a financial fine. 
 "We want to see traffickers behind bars," MOI Security 
Directorate Anti-Trafficking Department Head Aydogan Asar 
told G/TIP Foreign Affairs Officer Jennifer Donnelly during 
her January 25-27 visit to Turkey.  Additional penalties 
include up to ten thousand days imprisonment at judicial 
discretion. 
 
A January 24, 2005, article published in Hurriyet News 
reported that Turkish National Police spent 4.3 trillion 
Turkish Lira (approximately 3.1 million USD) on detention, 
transportation, room and board, and other 
deportation/repatriation expenses for illegal immigrants over 
the preceding five years.  The article did not distinguish 
between smuggling and trafficking. 
 
The GOT contributed to domestic and international anti-TIP 
operations financially, including a 10,000 USD grant from the 
MFA to IOM for TIP-specific law enforcement training, and a 
5,000 Euro grant to the Budapest Group, an international 
consultative forum (40 governments (including the USG) and 10 
international organizations) against trafficking and 
irregular migration.  Turkey co-chairs the Budapest Group. 
 
¶H. (U) There are credible reports of some law enforcement 
officials receiving bribes either to smuggle aliens or turn a 
blind eye to illegal prostitution.  There were also 
allegations that state regulated brothels illegally employed 
foreign prostitutes. 
 
In Istanbul, police confiscated a notebook in which 
traffickers required victims to record customers, names, 
phone numbers, vehicle license plate numbers and 
identification card information.  Turkish news media reported 
that the notebook included the names of police officers, 
government officials, popular sports stars, and a famous 
Turkish musician, Mustafa Akin.  According to the reports, 
the names numbered into the thousands. 
In Erzurum, two officers arrested for involvement in an 
international trafficking operation (reported in 2004) were 
expelled from the police force, sentenced to 6 months of 
imprisonment, fined, and banned from further government 
employment for their parts in an international 
sex-trafficking operation. 
 
¶I. (U) On July 8, 2003, again on November 20, 2003, and later 
in March 2004, the Turkish MFA distributed to source country 
diplomatic missions (Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Georgia, 
Moldova, Romania, Russia, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan) in Ankara 
and Istanbul draft protocols proposing guidelines for 
cross-border anti-trafficking cooperation. (See para H in the 
Investigation and Prosecution Section for text of the 
protocol). In September 2004, Belarus became the first and 
only country to adopt the protocol, which, among other 
improvements, suggests TIP-specific law enforcement points of 
contact in each government and proper channels for 
information sharing. 
 
Though Turkey has signed general international law 
enforcement protocols and judicial agreement protocols with 
55 foreign governments, including Iran most recently, the MFA 
maintains that a TIP-specific protocol is the only measure 
that will produce an effective government-to-government, 
police-to-police working relationship on TIP.  "We would like 
to move beyond a general agreement and avoid the pitfalls we 
have encountered with source countries in the past.  Human 
trafficking is a lost point in these general agreements with 
source countries," MFA Illegal Migration Department Head 
Iskender Okyay told G/TIP Foreign Affairs Officer Jennifer 
Donnelly. 
 
According to IOM Chief of Mission Marielle Lindstrom, 
cross-border cooperation between the GOT and Belarus, the 
only signatory, is "close and effective," and illustrated 
after 27-year-old Vera Krivienia (para F of Overview section) 
threw herself from the sixth floor window to escape her 
traffickers.  The investigation reportedly yielded arrests in 
both countries. Lindstrom also characterized Turkey's 
assistance in repatriating the victim's body as "superb, 
without delays, and brilliantly organized".  Citizens' 
services consular officers from the Embassy of Belarus 
frequently participate in IOM, HRDF and GOT anti-TIP training 
conferences for local law enforcement and judicial officials. 
 
In contrast, in a February 2004 poll conducted by Ukranian 
anti-trafficking NGOs through Interpol, only six percent of 
the 32 Ukranian police officers polled were "satisfied" with 
replies from Turkish law enforcement officials to requests 
for information about ongoing cross-border TIP cases; 
twenty-five percent were "partly satisfied"; and sixty-nine 
percent responded "not satisfied".  Forty-four percent of the 
respondents said they were not satisfied because they never 
received a response, twenty-two percent of respondents 
received replies after the investigation was already 
completed, and three percent said the responses they received 
were incorrect. 
 
The respondents recommended Ukraine and Turkey "sign a 
bilateral agreement concerning simplified cooperation in 
criminal cases related to human trafficking," stipulating: 1) 
direct contacts between Ukranian and Turkish law enforcement 
agencies; 2) simplified extradition procedures; 3) improved 
exchange of investigative materials documenting trafficking 
crimes; 4) established time frame for responding to 
inquiries; and 5) joint operations and training events to 
educate both sides." 
 
When confronted with the results of the poll, the MFA 
insisted that Ukraine and other source countries need to 
adopt some version of the official bilateral agreement first 
offered by the GOT in 2003.  "That's what we're offering 
them,"  Akif Ayhan, MFA Deputy Director for Turks Living 
Abroad, Migration, Asylum, and Property Issues said. Post 
encouraged Ms. Donnelly to raise this issue with relevant 
source country officials. 
 
¶J. (SBU) The government's Countertrafficking Taskforce 
monitors compliance with Turkey's National Action Plan on TIP 
(adopted in March 2003).  The MFA, which chairs the 
Taskforce, updated its counter-trafficking website throughout 
the reporting period with information that assisted in this 
report.  Compared with past reporting periods, the MFA was 
much more forthcoming with information about its anti-TIP 
efforts and challenges.  The GOT, however, has had limited 
success in implementing a government-wide system for reliably 
monitoring and assessing its anti-trafficking efforts, 
particularly regarding arrests, prosecutions, convictions, 
and sentencing.  The MOJ, particularly our TIP point of 
contact in the International Affairs Department, Judge Ilknur 
Altuntas, maintains a close hold on relevant information and 
reinforces MFA claims that the MOJ is "completely confused 
about how to collect the relevant statistics".  More than 
seven high-level government ministries and bureaus, and no 
fewer than 20 departments in these entities, have some 
jurisdiction over trafficking issues. 
 
¶K. (U) Prostitution in Turkey is legal and regulated, except 
in cases where the sex worker is a foreigner. Trafficking, 
smuggling with the intent to traffic, pimping, enforcing, or 
in any other way supporting activities of a trafficking 
operation is illegal.  The law also prohibits and provides 
punishment for individuals who own, operate or work to 
support the operation of brothels associated with human 
trafficking.  The minimum age for prostitution in Turkey is 
¶18. 
 
¶3. (U) Ankara TIP cables: 04 ANK 7103, 04 ANK 6938, 04 ANK 
6843, 04 ANK 6692, 04 ANK 6691, 04 ANK 6690, 04 ANK 6688, 04 
ANK 6687, 04 ANK 6686, 04 ANK 6366, 04 ANK 6309, 04 ANK 6072, 
04 ANK 5968, 04 ANK 5860, 04 ANK 5789, 04 ANK 5751, 04 ANK 
5750, 04 ANK 5205, 04 ANK 5002, 04 ANK 4982, 04 ANK 4808, 04 
ANK 4580, 04 ANK 4544, 04 ANK 4526, 04 ANK 4504, 04 ANK 4448, 
04 ANK 4416, 04 ANK 4317, 04 ANK 4273, 04 ANK 4148, 04 ANK 
4147, 04 ANK 4141, 04 ANK 3724, 04 ANK 3705, 04 ANK 3675, 04 
ANK 3673, 04 ANK 3427, 04 ANK 3048, 04 ANK 2198, 04 ANK 2189, 
04 ANK 2152, 04 ANK 2138, 04 ANK 2076, 04 ANK 2007, 04 ANK 
1839, 04 ANK 1595, 04 ANK 1233, 04 IST 1062, 04 CHISINAU 
1399, 04 KIEV 3594, 04 YEREVAN 2222 
EDELMAN