VZCZCXYZ0029
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHAK #4469/01 2151222
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 031222Z AUG 06
FM AMEMBASSY ANKARA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 7655
INFO RUEHIT/AMCONSUL ISTANBUL 1035
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RUEKDAI/DIA WASHDC
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHDC
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHDC
RUEUITH/ODC ANKARA TU//TCH//
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC
RUEUITH/TLO ANKARA TU
RUEHAK/TSR ANKARA TU

UNCLAS ANKARA 004469 
 
SIPDIS 
 
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 July 1 to 31, 2006 
 
1.(U) Summary:  During the four-week reporting period, the Turkish 
media continued to cover trafficking in persons (TIP)-related 
stories, including several Turkish National Police (TNP) and 
jandarma operations and two murder investigations. End Summary. 
 
2.(U) Media reported on several police and jandarma crackdowns on 
foreign prostitution and trafficking, including: 
 
-- "Radikal" on July 2, 2006, reported that the Konya police raided 
a house and saved K.Y. (15), who was forced into prostitution for 
four months. Police detained 20 people. 
 
--"Hurriyet" and "Sabah" on July 3, 2006, wrote that the Istanbul 
police, who, working undercover as rich businessmen, bargained with 
Imam K. (49), who was selling foreign women in Pendik district. 
Police detained him and, based on his testimony, raided a house in 
the same district and detained his girlfriend Selma L.  The police 
also saved Ukrainian Natalia M., who was staying at that house. 
Natalia told the police that she arrived in Turkey to work as a 
nanny and complained that she was forced into prostitution. 
 
-- Anatolian News Agency reported on July 5 that the police raided 
some sites in Kusadasi and detained 80 foreign women who were 
working as prostitutes.  The next day AA reported that the number of 
detainees reached 117, including six organizers.  The police also 
seized seven unregistered guns and hundreds of bullets. 
 
-- "Radikal" on July 9 reported that the Aydin police raided 22 
sites, including 11 hotels in Aydin and Kusadasi, and detained 116 
foreign women and 27 traffickers.  Police seized nine pistols, 208 
bullets, a pump-action rifle, a sword and knives.  Seven traffickers 
were jailed.  The Kusadasi sub-governor shut down for 165 days the 
11 hotels involved in prostitution. 
 
-- "Sabah" and "Aksam" on July 19 reported that the Yalova public 
prosecutor ordered the detention of four officials for providing 
passports to foreign prostitutes and not deporting those who 
overstayed their visa.  They also allegedly received bribes.  The 
next day "Radikal" reported that the gang was paying $3000-5000 for 
forged marriage and citizenship documents and $300-500 for temporary 
residence permits.  On July 23, "Radikal" reported that the 
prosecutor ordered the arrest of nine of the 15 suspects, including 
Yalova Foreigners Police Chief Haydar Gumuskaya and Yalova 
Population Affairs Director Ziver Zikri Demirel.  Six other 
suspects, including five foreign women, were released on their own 
recognizance; they are expected to appear at trial. 
 
--"Sabah" on July 20 reported that three people admitted to the 
Konya police that they killed Pinar Ozayaz (16), who was forced into 
prostitution.  Pinar was sexually harassed when she was 9-years old 
by the man who was living with her mother.  She fell into the hands 
of a prostitution ring when she was 15.  Ozayaz was killed along 
with Hatice Col and brother Irfan Col three months ago.  They were 
killed by the three who confessed to the murder: Ismail Erturk, 
Halil Ibrahim Alvin and Ilker Baltaci, because the victims had 
helped another girl Duygu Yesim Cilem escape from the gang.  The 
gang was torturing women with razors.  Only D.Y.C. managed to 
escape. 
 
-- "Sabah" on July 26 reported that the police detained 22 people 
for prostitution.  After learning that the murders were committed 
because of prostitute Duygu Yesim Cilem, police officer Ms. Gulden 
Erdogdu (27) dressed like a prostitute and tried to reach Cilem, who 
reportedly was working along the Eregli-Hatay highway.  She talked 
to ten prostitutes who admitted that they were dragged into 
prostitution after being raped at a very early age.  She reached 
Cilem in Hatay.  Cilem told her that she ran away from the gang that 
was forcing her into prostitution. 
Police sent 20 of the 25 suspects to judicial hall and requested 
that they be put under arrest. 
 
-- "Hurriyet" on July 24 reported that the Jandarma saved 14 foreign 
women who were forced into prostitution in Istanbul.  The Jandarma 
raided the "Marmara Piramit Hotel" and, in a small room hidden 
behind a mirror, found four Moldovan women, who said that they were 
brought to Turkey one month ago and forced into prostitution. 
Some of the women had hepatitis B and gonorrhea.  The manager of the 
hotel, Ismail Toprak, was detained.  The owner of the hotel, Irfan 
Bacioglu, and his son Ali Bacioglu were detained many times in the 
past for the same crime.  They, too, were detained. 
 
--The web pages of newspapers on July 26 reported that Erhan 
Sertkaya (28) stabbed and killed his Azeri girlfriend Tamasa 
Ismailova, who was working as a prostitute.  On July 24, Sertkaya 
reportedly quarreled with her in Istanbul and stabbed her ten times. 
 Sertkaya told the police that they had been seeing each other for 
two years, and that, although he wanted to save her from this life 
by proposing to marry her, she rejected him. 
 
--"Hurriyet," "Sabah" and "Aksam" on July 28, 2006, reported that 
the Jandarma detained members of a gang that was selling foreign 
women as sex slaves in Kemer, Antalya. 
 
-- A "Show TV" reporter, disguised as a client, bargained with gang 
members who took him to a house where Russian, Moldovan and Azeri 
women were put at his disposal.  The gang charged $3000-9000 per 
woman, depending on how beautiful she was.  The reporter reached a 
deal to buy eight women.  The gang leader gave him the passports. 
Immediately after this deal, the Jandarma raided the house and 
detained seven gang members and eight foreign women, including a 
Russian woman (19) who was 5.5 months pregnant.  A judge placed five 
of the seven gang members under arrest. 
 
MCELDOWNEY