VZCZCXRO0385
RR RUEHDA
DE RUEHAK #5944 2891413
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 161413Z OCT 06
FM AMEMBASSY ANKARA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 9405
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC
RUEAWJA/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHDC
INFO RUEHDA/AMCONSUL ADANA 1231
RUEHIT/AMCONSUL ISTANBUL 1468

UNCLAS ANKARA 005944 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
TREASURY FOR OTI - RLOEFFLER AND JSERAFINI 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KTFN PTER EFIN ETTC TU
SUBJECT: TERRORISM FINANCE: TURKEY FINALLY PASSES LAW ON 
FINANCIAL INTELLIGENCE UNIT 
 
REF: ANKARA 5612 
 
¶1. (SBU) On October 11, the Turkish Parliament finally passed 
the "MASAK Law," long-awaited legislation which the 
Government views as the centerpiece of its efforts to 
strengthen Turkey's regime against money-laundering and 
terrorism finance.  The law was intended to improve Turkey's 
compliance with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) 
Recommendations.  Minister of Finance Unakitan and MASAK 
President Yarasli had hoped to enact the law before 
parliament adjourned for the summer, so as to have it in 
place when FATF's mutual review team was here in September to 
examine Turkey's AML/CTF regime. In the event, the team's 
mission to Turkey came prior to passage of the law but the 
team is still in the process of completing its report.  It is 
not clear how much the subsequent passage will change the 
FATF team's evaluation. 
 
¶2. (SBU) The legislation restructures MASAK (Turkey's 
financial intelligence unit, or FIU) along functional lines 
and broadens the types of entities required to follow 
know-your-customer rules and file Suspicious Activity Reports 
(SARs).  The most important reform in the legislation is a 
provision that protects filers of SARs from litigation. 
Turkey has had a very low number of SARs filed, among other 
reasons because bank employees feared litigation. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Comment: Other actions are needed to strengthen 
Turkey's AML/CTF regime so as to comply with FATF 
recommendations and UNSC resolutions, such as more effective 
cooperation between government agencies, more technical 
capacity to investigate financial crimes, creation of a legal 
basis with which to freeze assets of designated terrorist 
financiers and broadening the legal definition of terrorism 
to include international terrorism. 
 
Visit Ankara's Classified Web Site at 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/ankara/ 
 
WILSON