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

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ISTANBUL 000329 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPT FOR G/TIP; SKOPJE FOR LEGAD CARLIN; BUCHAREST FOR 
SECI/STURM 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: TU BO MD PHUM KCRM PGOV KJUS TIP IN TURKEY
SUBJECT: MUNICIPALITY TO FUND ISTANBUL TIP SHELTER, BUT 
PROSECUTORS DOWNPLAY GRAVITY OF TIP ISSUE 
 
REF: A. ANKARA 591 
     ¶B. ISTANBUL 38 
     ¶C. 04 MINSK 1721 
 
¶1. Summary and comment: In recent Istanbul meetings on 
trafficking in persons (TIP), G/TIP officer Jennifer Donnelly 
discussed the upcoming TIP report and Turkey's Tier 2 watch 
list placement with Istanbul prosecutors, municipal and 
governorate officials and the leading Turkish NGO on TIP 
issues.  While the secretary general of the Istanbul 
municipality confirmed another year of funding for the 
Istanbul TIP shelter run by HRDF, he implied that the 
municipality did not wish to continue supporting the shelter 
indefinitely.  Istanbul Chief Prosecutor Engin asserted to 
Donnelly that Turkey's role in trafficking is only as a 
transit, not a source country, and complained that 
cooperation from source countries has been insufficient to 
combat the problem globally.  Bakirkoy and Istanbul public 
prosecutors downplayed separately to Donnelly and Skopje 
Legal Advisor Carlin the number of TIP cases in Istanbul, 
noting that most TIP victims were not involuntary, and 
bristled at the U.S. focus on Turkey's TIP problems. 
Comment: Although the new shelter for trafficking victims in 
Istanbul is at full capacity, the prosecutors in Istanbul are 
downplaying the problem. End summary and comment. 
 
Municipality Confirms Continued Funding for Shelter 
 
¶2. (SBU)  In meetings January 27 with Istanbul prosecutors, 
municipal and governorate officials and the leading Turkish 
NGO on TIP issues,  G/TIP foreign affairs officer for Eurasia 
Jennifer Donnelly discussed the upcoming TIP report and 
Turkey's placement on the Tier 2 watch list.  Accompanying 
Donnelly on the meetings were Ankara DAO Col. Smith, FBI 
Senior Advisor at SECI Stuart Sturm, and Istanbul poloffs. 
The Secretary General of the Istanbul Metropolitan 
Municipality, Prof. Dr. Ramazan Evren, was the bearer of good 
news.  He confirmed to Donnelly that in line with the 
protocol signed in 2004 between the municipality and the 
Human Resources Development Foundation (HRDF), the NGO 
focusing on TIP issues in Istanbul, the municipality will 
continue to financially support the TIP shelter run by HRDF 
after the current municipality-funded one-year lease expires 
in June 2005.  He reassured Donnelly that the municipality's 
support is not temporary, and that the municipality is 
committed to work with HRDF to deal with TIP victims. 
However, Evren's statement that it is essential for NGOs to 
develop the necessary resources to become financially 
independent (referred to in the municipality's report on the 
visit in their website, www.ibb.gov.tr) implied that the 
municipality's financial support of the shelter will not 
continue indefinitely. 
 
Shelter at Full Capacity 
 
¶3. (SBU)  Newly-appointed HRDF Director Berna Eren and 
shelter project coordinator Tuba Dundar briefed Donnelly on 
the activities of HRDF's TIP shelter, the first and only 
shelter in Turkey, which opened in November 2004 after 
signing a protocol with the municipality, which paid the 
first year's rent.  HRDF has also received funding for the 
shelter from Phillip Morris.  The shelter is on the top floor 
of an apartment building in Taksim; in order to protect the 
privacy of the victims, no visitors are allowed and the 
location is kept secret (Eren said she herself has not seen 
the shelter).  Since the shelter opened, it has been at full 
capacity, housing a maximum of 11-12 victims.  Four HRDF 
employees work in the shelter, including two Turkish citizen 
housing counselors of Russian origin and one of 
Molodovan/Bulgarian origin who are on duty at all times. 
(Dundar commented that most of the victims treated at the 
shelter to date have been of Moldovan and Ukrainian origin.) 
The counselors understand the Turkish bureaucracy, so are 
able to counsel the victims.   Before entering the shelter, 
the police take statements from the victims.  One HRDF 
counselor from the shelter participates in the initial 
interview, but no one from the shelter accompanies the victim 
to the police. 
 
¶4. (SBU)  Shelter coordinator Dundar told Donnelly that HRDF 
provides a homelike environment for the victims in the 
shelter; if the victims have health problems, they are taken 
to hospitals and treated by psychologists.  HRDF Board 
Chairman Turgut Tokus said in a later meeting that at least 
one victim had been referred to a mental health hospital on 
the recommendation of the shelter psychologist.  The Ministry 
of Health issued a circular to all state hospitals ensuring 
that victims of trafficking will be treated free of charge. 
Victims can stay at the shelter for more than a week, 
particularly those with serious psychological problems, such 
as some who have tried to commit suicide by jumping out of 
buildings.   Some victims have stayed over two months, 
including one Iranian woman.  Since the shelter opened in 
November 2004 until late January 2005, it has assisted 32 
victims of trafficking, some of whom are still in the 
shelter.   Dundar noted that Turkey issues a humanitarian 
visa to victims of trafficking for those who are repatriated. 
 IOM prepares the safe return of the victims, including 
providing passports and tickets, and contacting the home 
country to arrange their reception at a specific city. 
 
HRDF: Good Cooperation with Police and MinInt 
 
¶5. (SBU)  According to HRDF Director Eren, HRDF has excellent 
cooperation with law enforcement authorities and the Ministry 
of Interior.  HRDF has conducted five training courses in TIP 
with prosecutors, judges, and police officers, and has made 
TIP agreements with the jandarma and with the police.  Eren 
welcomed FBI Senior Advisor Sturm's suggestion that HRDF set 
up a videoconferencing facility to assist in prosecution of 
those who involved in trafficking, in order to protect the 
victim's privacy.  He described a successful pilot program 
the FBI has implemented using videoconferencing, in which the 
trafficked woman did not talk with the police, but did speak 
to the camera. 
 
¶6. (SBU)  HRDF has 8 full-time project officers and staff in 
the Istanbul/Taksim office, as well as part-time project 
coordinators.  In addition to its Taksim office, HRDF has a 
social center in Golcuk, and project offices both in the 
Sisli district of Istanbul and in Ankara.  HRDF is the 
leading NGO in Turkey working on TIP, but has a network with 
other NGOs.  In addition to TIP, HRDF's programs have 
assisted 400,000 women in the area of reproductive health, 
and 7,500 refugees. 
 
¶7. (SBU) Donnelly's meeting at the Governor's office was less 
productive, because the human rights chairperson at the 
Istanbul Governor's office, Vildan Yirmibesoglu, was not 
well-briefed on the TIP problem in Istanbul.   A lawyer who 
had worked on womens' rights issues for 13 years in the 
mayor's office in Gaziantep,  Yirmibesoglu was familiar with 
the six Istanbul shelters for street children and women who 
had been sexually assaulted, run by the municipality and by 
the social services division of the governor's office, but 
had no information on the HRDF shelter. 
 
Istanbul Chief Prosecutor: Turkey only a Transit Country 
 
¶8. (SBU) Meeting with Istanbul Chief Prosecutor Aykut Engin, 
Donnelly noted that TIP is a human rights issue, and 
discussed Turkey's placement on Tier Two of the watch list. 
Engin agreed that trafficking in persons is one of the most 
serious violations of human rights, and his office was 
determined to do what it could to combat TIP.   Engin noted 
that Turkey has started a determined campaign to combat 
trafficking, and that in 2002 the penal code was amended to 
include trafficking -- proving Turkey's determination.  While 
some countries criticize Turkey for their lack of action in 
the TIP area, Engin stressed that many countries have more 
serious TIP problems than Turkey. 
 
¶9. (SBU) Engin claimed that Turkey's role in trafficking is 
only as a transit, not a source, country.  Turkey has been 
placed in an unfortunate position due to its geography: all 
source countries are neighbors with or close to Turkey. 
Because the former Soviet republics are in a state of 
economic crisis, their residents want to emigrate  -- and 
the demand for cheap labor is one of the main causes of 
trafficking.  He believed that many of those from former 
Soviet republics who stay in Turkey do so willingly, to 
engage in prostitution.  Others are victims of organized 
crime brought to Turkey by force.  Engin did not think that 
TIP in Istanbul was related to drug trade.  He stressed that 
cooperation from source countries is essential to reduce the 
problem, but source country efforts to date have been 
insufficient to combat the problem globally. 
 
¶10. (SBU) Engin noted that human trafficking must be 
distinguished from illegal immigration, an overlapping 
problem in Turkey.  The Istanbul district has handled 21 
incidents of trafficking in person and 95 cases of illegal 
immigration since the penal code was amended in 2002.  It 
takes a long time to reach a verdict in TIP cases:  of the 21 
cases, only 4 have been resolved in the Istanbul court; 3 or 
4 were sent to other courts, and the remaining were still 
ongoing.  The Istanbul prosecutor's office informs embassies 
of source countries about the cases.  If the victims are in 
Turkey voluntarily, they usually are sent back to their 
countries.  If the victims were brought to Turkey by force, 
they are referred to a psychologist; such cases are outside 
the jurisdiction of the Istanbul prosecutor's office and are 
generally referred to the governor's office.   Deportations 
are the responsibility of administrative divisions of 
Istanbul -- they are not the job of the prosecutor's office. 
Engin stressed that source countries do not help Turkey 
resolve TIP cases, because they often do not want victims 
repatriated and do not provide enough money to send them back 
(including visa/hotel/transportation costs).  Turkey thus 
faces huge expenses in repatriating the victims.  He 
commented that if the other countries involved would 
cooperate with Turkey, the problem would not have reached 
such dimensions. 
 
¶11. (SBU) Engin responded positively to the suggestion of 
Stuart Sturm, senior advisor at SECI, to introduce 
videoconferencing to the prosecutors' office to assist in TIP 
cases.  While videoconferencing would be useful, Engin noted 
that such a decision would have to be made at a higher level 
in Ankara.   Engin said that the prosecutor's office already 
has a judicial program with SECI; he himself participated in 
a seminar in the U.S. on freedom of thought and prosecutor 
relations. 
 
¶12. (SBU) Bakirkoy prosecutor Ergezen, handling the 
indictment of four men in connection with a TIP-related 
suicide of a Belarusian woman in Bakirkoy, met with Donnelly 
January 27 and with TIP speaker Barbara Carlin, Resident 
Legal Advisor to Embassy Skopje, February 11.   He shared 
with Donnelly the documents on the indictment of four men in 
connection with the case of Belarusian citizen Vera Krivenia, 
who he said died in the hospital after jumping out of the 
window.  Nadia, one of the two other TIP victims sharing an 
apartment with Krivenia, witnessed the incident.  Ergezen 
asserted Turkey is a democratic country, and victims are not 
pressured by the police.   He noted that penalties for 
TIP-related crimes causing trauma are heavy: 5-10 years for 
trafficking, 1-5 years for limiting freedom, and 1-3 years 
for encouraging prostitution -- all of which could be added 
together, leading to a 25 year sentence.   (Note: Under the 
revised penal code taking effect April 1, 2005, these 
penalties will be increased, including 8-12 years for 
trafficking.) 
 
¶13. (SBU) Ergezen stressed to both Donnelly and Carlin that 
the crime rate in Istanbul is low for a city of 16 million, 
compared to that in large cities in other countries. 
According to Ergezen, the Bakirkoy prosecutor's district 
handles the largest number of TIP cases in Turkey, followed 
by Ankara, Izmir, and the Istanbul districts of Kadikoy and 
Sultanahmet.   Both Ergezen and Istanbul prosecutor Yelkenci 
downplayed the number of TIP cases in Istanbul, noting that 
most TIP victims were not involuntary, and that illegal 
immigration was the greater problem in Istanbul.  They also 
bristled at the U.S. focus on Turkey's TIP problems, asking 
why we are not pressing France, Italy and Spain on the TIP 
issue. 
 
¶14. (U) This cable has been cleared by Embassy Ankara. 
ARNETT