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Dianne Wampler  08/03/2006 01:50:01 PM  From  DB/Inbox:  Dianne Wampler

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UNCLAS        ANKARA 04455

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    ACTION: POL
    INFO:   CONS RAO TSR PMA DCM AMB FCS PA ECON MGT DAO

DISSEMINATION: POL /1
CHARGE: PROG

APPROVED: POL: JGWEINER
DRAFTED: POL: JERSOY
CLEARED: POL: CJWESTLEY

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INFO RUEHIT/AMCONSUL ISTANBUL 1032
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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ANKARA 004455 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR G/TIP, G, INL, DRL, EUR/PGI, EUR/SE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL KCRM PHUM KWMN SMIG KFRD PREF TU
SUBJECT: TIP in Turkey: Media Attention from June 1 to 30, 2006 
 
1.(U) Summary:  During the four-week reporting period, the Turkish 
media continued frequently to cover stories about trafficking in 
persons, including Turkish National Police (TNP) and jandarma 
operations, human interest tales, a major new project and a 
prime-time investigative journalism piece.  End Summary 
 
----------------- 
Police Operations 
----------------- 
 
2.(U) Media reported on several police actions related to 
prostitution and possible trafficking, including: 
 
-- "Hurriyet" on June 13 reported that the Istanbul police raided a 
house in the neighborhood of Eminonu for prostitution.  Moldovan 
Olessa Manea (19) said that she was going to sell her eggs.  Manea, 
Mehmet Ataman and Natalie Prodan were sent to court.  Experts said 
that eggs, preferably from pretty women, were sold for 
$100,000-250,000 to infertile women. 
 
-- The Istanbul Morals Police raided an apartment in the 
neighborhood of Findikzade and detained 13 people, including nine 
men and four women.  While four foreign women were detained, the men 
were released after the police obtained their identities.  The three 
Turkmenistan and one Georgian detainees were sent to a hospital for 
a check up.  The police notified three of the men captured during 
the raid that they should immediately go to be checked for HIV.  The 
four women will be deported after testifying to the police. 
 
-- Anatolian News Agency reported on June 13 that the Antalya police 
raided a house and saved two sisters who were allegedly forced into 
prostitution for one week.  One of the clients who came to their 
house later called the Antalya police and told them that two young 
women were kept by force in a house.  During the operation, police 
saved Moldavian sisters O.R. (22) and M.R. (23).  M.O., who 
allegedly forced the sisters into prostitution, too, was captured. 
In her testimony, M.R. said that M.O. promised to marry her in 
Antalya last week and her sister accompanied her with hopes of 
finding a job.  M.O. forced them into prostitution. 
 
-- "Sabah" on June 14 reported that the police raided the "Hotel 
Parlar" in Igdir and detained the manager of the hotel and an Azeri 
woman who was caught as she was working as a prostitute.  The hotel 
was next to the Governor's office and employees of the Governor 
reportedly saw naked women in the hotel windows when they looked 
out.  Governor Halil Ibrahim Ulusoy said that the biggest problem of 
the province was the increase in the number of prostitution 
incidents.  He added that their fight against illegal prostitution 
would continue. 
 
-- Anatolian News Agency on June 15 reported that police in Elazig, 
Trabzon and Igdir (northeastern Turkey) carried out an operation 
simultaneously to crack down on a 12-member network that was 
bringing women from abroad and forcing them into prostitution.  As a 
result of two months of surveillance, the police carried out the 
operation and detained the following gang members: A.B. (Azeri woman 
who was the gang leader; She had earlier served a prison term for 
human trafficking), S.O., H.T., H.A., S.O., H.C., D.S. and R.B. They 
found three victims.  Four more suspects were detained in Trabzon 
and Igdir.  The police also seized a house worth 100,000 YTL in 
Elazig and three cars.  One of the suspects captured in Trabzon owns 
a hotel and another hotel in Elazig was used for prostitution. 
After the police interrogated them, the suspects were later sent 
before a judge. 
 
-- "Hurriyet" on June 20, 2006, reported that the Jandarma carried 
out an operation on bars, hotels and night clubs in and around 
Yalova and detained 32 foreign women and four people who forced them 
into prostitution.  Five of the women earlier had won Turkish 
citizenship.  Twenty-seven women from Ukraine, Romania and Moldavia 
were turned over to the foreigners police to be deported because 
their visas were expired. 
 
-- "Milliyet" on June 22 reported that after a foreign woman applied 
to the Sirinyer Police Station in Izmir, the police detained 19 
people who were forcing foreign women into prostitution.  They also 
detained four policemen for assisting the gang.  The policemen later 
were released pending trial.  In the same report, the daily also 
referred to different operation in the Izmir and Manisa area during 
which ten traffickers were detained.  They were luring Russian women 
to Turkey by offering them jobs, such as work as a nanny.  Erkan A., 
the ring leader, six other Turks and three foreign women were 
detained.  The seven Turks reportedly tortured the foreign women in 
order to convince them to serve as prostitutes. 
 
-- "Hurriyet" webpage on June 26 reported that the Erzurum Police 
raided some hotels in the city center and captured 25 foreign women 
and three people who were organizing them into prostitution.  The 25 
women, who were reportedly working as nurses and teachers in 
Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine and Russia, were turned over to the 
Foreigner's Police to be deported after their medical check up. 
They admitted that they came to Turkey to earn more money but found 
themselves in prostitution.  They said, "We could not earn in our 
country in one month what we are earning here in one day.  The 
Turkish men are very affectionate.  Even if you show us the door, we 
will find a way to come back.  We all have children that we need to 
take care of.  If we don't do this, we will starve."  The police 
detained O.A (23), H.K. (26) and A.B. (36) for facilitating 
prostitution.  The court ordered their formal arrest and sent them 
to jail. 
 
 
----------------- 
One Woman's Story 
----------------- 
 
¶3. (U) "Hurriyet" on June 11 reported that Maria Alexandra (19), a 
Moldovan citizen, was found injured in the garden of an apartment at 
Beylukduzu district of Istanbul. Initially, she said that her 
boyfriend pushed her from a 6th floor balcony but later admitted 
that she jumped off when forced into prostitution. 
 
Maria arrived in Istanbul four months ago upon her boyfriend Dimitru 
Tcoccive's promise that he could find her a job as a nanny in 
Turkey.  She did not hesitate and they began to live together in an 
apartment in Aksaray.  Her boyfriend told her on June 6 that he 
found a job for her with Emilia Kotorobai, an 8.5 months pregnant 
woman who lived at Beylikduzu with her two children.  Around 19:30 
locals heard Maria's scream as she fell. 
 
Her hip and legs were broken.  After being operated on, she 
testified to the Jandarma.  She claimed that as they quarreled with 
her boyfriend, he pushed her.  But in her second testimony, Maria 
said that her boyfriend sold her to Emilia for $2000.  When she said 
that Maria now should be with men and earn money, she jumped off the 
balcony.  Her boyfriend fled. 
 
Emilia, who was accused of restricting liberties/freedom and forced 
prostitution, was arrested by an Istanbul court. 
 
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New Project 
----------- 
 
¶4. (U) "Sabah" on June 16 reported that the "Blue Crescent 
Humanitarian Assistance and Development Foundation," along with the 
U.S. Catholic Relief Organization in the United States will begin a 
project to "Prevent Trafficking in Women" in eight source countries 
this September.  The joint project with the U.S. Catholic Relief 
Organization has a $3m budget.  The coordinators are cooperating 
with the MFA and the Interior Ministry.  Muzaffer Baca, Vice 
Chairman of the Blue Crescent Foundation, said that they were 
talking to governments and, in particular, the education ministries 
of each country.  Baca said that, according to studies in Turkey, 
there were around 200 gangs and women were trafficked mostly from 
Ukraine and Moldova. 
 
------------------------- 
Investigative Journalism 
------------------------- 
 
¶5. (U) "A TV," one of the major private TV stations of Turkey, 
during its main evening news hour at 19:30 hrs on June 28, referred 
to another TV program on Moldovan girls used as sex slaves.  The 
reporter went to two apartments where such women were offered and, 
hiding his true identity, pretended to be a client.  The trafficker 
charged him 70 YTL (approximately $50) per session.  When the 
reporter went inside, he chatted with the Moldovan girl, who said 
that she was lured into Turkey by another job offer.  The reporter 
also visited another apartment where the trafficker was selling a 
Moldovan woman for $2500 and bragging that she was born only in 
¶1986.  After his visits to both sites, the reporter tipped off the 
police who raided both apartments.  The first trafficker and his 
wife were detained.  The fate of the trafficker in the second house 
was not clear. 
 
MCELDOWNEY