VZCZCXYZ1814
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHAK #0424/01 0641519
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 041519Z MAR 08
FM AMEMBASSY ANKARA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 5457
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEAHLC/HOMELAND SECURITY CENTER WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEAWJA/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHDC PRIORITY

UNCLAS ANKARA 000424 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR: G/TIP, G, INL, DRL, PRM, EUR/SE, EUR/PGI 
 DEPT FOR USAID 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KCRM PHUM KWMN SMIG KFRD ASEC PREF ELAB TU
SUBJECT: TURKEY:  8TH ANNUAL TIP REPORT:  OVERVIEW AND 
PREVENTION 
 
REF: A. SECSTATE 2731 
     ¶B. 07 ANKARA 2893 
 
¶1.  (U) Sensitive but unclassified.  Please protect 
accordingly. 
 
¶2.  (U) Post's responses are keyed to reftel A questions. 
This is part 1 of 3 (septels).  Embassy point of contact is 
Anthony Renzulli, telephone 90-312-457-7178, fax 
90-312-468-4775.  Renzulli (FS-03) spent approximately 90 
hours in preparation of this report.  External Unit Chief 
Chris Krafft (FS-02) and Political Counselor Janice G. Weiner 
(FS-01) each spent approximately 2 hours reviewing this 
report. 
 
OVERVIEW 
-------- 
 
¶A.  (SBU) Turkey is a destination country for women 
trafficked internationally for the purpose of sexual 
exploitation and, to a lesser degree, forced labor.  Men and 
children are much more rarely trafficked to Turkey.  The 
Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) reports 148 victims 
rescued in 2007.  Eight were children, under the age of 18. 
IOM reports having assisted 118 of these victims, the rest 
choosing to forego the IOM referral mechanism and return 
directly to their countries.  Of these 118 IOM-assisted, only 
four were children, five were men, and 15 were trafficked for 
the purpose of forced labor.  The vast majority of victims 
are trafficked from Eastern Europe and the former Soviet 
Union.  Of the victims IOM assisted in 2007, the source 
countries were as follows:  Moldova (43), Russia (18), 
Kyrgyzstan (14), Turkmenistan (12), Uzbekistan (11), Bulgaria 
(6), Ukraine (6), Azerbaijan (3), and Georgia (3).  IOM only 
assisted two victims from outside this region during the 
reporting period:  one from Tunisia and one from Sri Lanka. 
Between January 1 and February 15, 2008, IOM has assisted an 
additional fifteen victims, all adults.  The source countries 
were as follows:  Moldova (9), Russia (2), Azerbaijan (1), 
Belarus (1), Turkmenistan (1), and Morocco (1).  The 
principal Turkish destinations for trafficked victims are 
Antalya, Izmir, Istanbul, Trabzon, and Ankara, suggesting a 
strong correlation in Turkey between tourism and TIP. 
 
No Turkish territory is outside the government's control. 
The incidence of internal trafficking is rare compared to 
international trafficking (less than ten percent of the TIP 
files in Turkish courts in 2007 pertained to Turkish 
victims.)  Social conditions in parts of rural Turkey -- 
poverty, illiteracy, domestic violence, and internal 
migration to urban areas -- are similar to those faced in 
countries where victims trafficked to Turkey originate, 
suggesting that internal trafficking could still emerge as a 
serious problem in Turkey.  MFA, Turkish National Police 
(TNP), Jandarma, Ministry of Justice (MOJ), Ministry of Labor 
(MOL), IOM, and the two organizations operating the Istanbul 
and Ankara TIP shelters -- Human Resources Development 
Foundation (HRDF) and Foundation for Women's Solidarity 
(FWS), respectively -- are our primary sources of TIP 
information; these sources and their data are reliable. 
Turkey's interagency taskforce on TIP has made significant 
strides in improving the documentation of trafficking.  In 
2007 the GOT issued a comprehensive 2006 report on combating 
TIP in Turkey, and plans to continue to do so on an annual 
basis.  According to GOT and IOM data, young women from the 
former Soviet Union (sometimes referred to pejoratively in 
Turkey as "Natashas") are at the greatest risk of being 
trafficked. 
 
¶B.  (SBU) The GOT continues to take TIP seriously and has 
taken significant measures during the rating period to 
prevent trafficking, protect victims, and prosecute 
traffickers.  Interagency and NGO cooperation has further 
improved.  Law enforcement remained determined in its efforts 
to crack down on TIP.  According to TNP, anti-trafficking 
operations (91 in 2007) have led to a significant decrease in 
the number of victims identified.  The GOT also believes the 
December 2006 amendment of Turkish Penal Code (TPC) Article 
80, which added forced prostitution to the anti-trafficking 
article, thereby raising the trafficking penalty to eight to 
twelve years in prison (see part 2, septel), further deterred 
traffickers.  The GOT also pursued robust regional 
cooperation and undertook a number of highly successful 
anti-trafficking operations in partnership with source 
 
country governments, including through information sharing 
with source country authorities.  Recognizing a year-on-year 
decrease in the number of traffickers apprehended and victims 
rescued, law enforcement is actively researching migration 
routes and other evidence to determine whether traffickers 
have adjusted their methodologies to avoid apprehension. 
 
Most victims are remedially-educated women aged 18-35 who 
travel to Turkey voluntarily seeking employment; a far 
smaller percentage arrive in Turkey for travel or marriage 
purposes.  Some victims arrive in Turkey with the knowledge 
they will work illegally in the sex industry, but others as 
models, dancers, waitresses, or domestic servants.  About 
fifty percent of IOM-assisted victims during the rating 
period were mothers.  The large majority of traffickers are 
Turkish (264 out of 308), though many recruiters are from 
source countries.  Women are instrumental in recruiting 
victims, though boyfriends and phony employment agencies also 
play a role.  Force, passport capture/counterfeiting, and 
debt bondage for travel costs are trafficker methods TNP has 
identified.  TIP is primarily carried out by small networks 
of traffickers in Turkey and the source countries.  Turkish 
law enforcement authorities believe TIP is closely associated 
with organized and other transnational crime.  However, law 
enforcement agencies represented at post (DEA and FBI) have 
not identified a strong correlation between TIP and, for 
example, narco-trafficking in Turkey.  Turkey has a liberal 
visa regime, making it relatively easy to traffic victims to 
Turkey or for at-risk women to enter Turkey.  In an effort to 
boost commercial ties in the region, Turkey, in July 2007, 
unilaterally exempted Tajik, Turkmen, and Uzbek nationals 
from visa requirements for visits to Turkey of thirty days or 
less.  Turkey had already waived, mutually, visa requirements 
with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan and Georgia. 
 
¶C.  (SBU) MFA, Ministry of Interior (MOI -- includes TNP and 
Jandarma), MOJ, and MOL are the principal government agencies 
involved in anti-trafficking efforts.  The Ministry of Health 
(MOH) provides free health care to victims, and the Ankara 
and Istanbul municipal governments furnish space for the two 
dedicated TIP shelters free of charge.  The interagency 
taskforce met quarterly during the rating period -- up from 
twice yearly last year -- and is led by Ambassador Kemal Gur, 
MFA Director General for Consular Affairs.  Numerous 
agencies, municipalities, IOM, the shelter administrators, 
and the European Commission (EC) participate in taskforce 
meetings.  (See Prevention, para E, below, for details on the 
taskforce composition.)  Our EC contacts tell us the GOT's 
interagency and NGO cooperation on TIP is at a uniquely high 
level, exceeding Turkish performance in other EU accession 
areas pertaining to justice and rule of law. 
 
¶D.  (SBU) Turkey is a developing country with a median GDP of 
approximately $6,900, situated at the crossroads of major 
East-West and North-South migration flows.  In 2007, over 23 
million tourists visited Turkey, and another 780,000 in 
January 2008 -- a ten percent increase over 2006.  At the 
same time, Turkey faces a serious cross-border (PKK) 
terrorism problem originating from northern Iraq, which 
resulted in the death of 166 Turkish security forces and 
civilians in 2007.  The fight against terrorism commands a 
huge share of Turkey's law enforcement and prosecutorial 
resources.  Despite these challenges, Turkey has mustered 
impressive organizational and financial resources to combat 
TIP -- far in excess, it argues, of neighboring source 
countries. 
 
One particular challenge the GOT faces in maintaining TIP 
statistics is the peculiar division of responsibility between 
TNP and Jandarma.  In Turkey, municipal law enforcement is 
TNP's responsibility, while rural areas, borders and ports of 
entry are policed by the Jandarma (Gendarmerie).  Both 
agencies report to the Minister of Interior, but data 
exchange between the two is sometimes inefficient, though TNP 
retains the sole responsibility for victim identification. 
Also, judicial data collection can be problematic, since 
statistics on prosecutions, convictions and sentencing must 
be collected from local courts in 81 provinces; there is no 
centralized database.  Judicial proceedings in Turkey are, as 
a general rule, painfully slow.  Another challenge the GOT 
faces is how to efficiently and effectively utilize the aid 
it receives as a neighboring and accession country from 
European donors.  For example, delays in finalizing an MOU 
with the European Commission on a two-year, 3 million Euro 
comprehensive anti-TIP project -- which was to include 
shelter support -- nearly led the Ankara shelter to suspend 
operations when it could no longer afford to pay salaries 
(ref B).  The GOT will have to ensure no new resource gaps 
emerge as it implements European-funded projects.  A new, 
comprehensive anti-TIP national action plan is currently 
awaiting the Prime Minister's signature and translation into 
English.  The plan is expected to ensure sustainable GOT 
support for victim assistance measures, e.g., the telephone 
helpline, shelters, etc. 
 
¶E.  (U)  As noted above, in 2007 the GOT published a 
domestic, interagency, 2006 TIP report.  Both publicly and 
privately, including through active regional engagement, the 
GOT frequently and candidly shares with us and other 
countries its assessment of domestic anti-trafficking efforts. 
 
PREVENTION 
---------- 
 
¶A.  (U) The GOT acknowledges that trafficking is a problem in 
Turkey. 
 
¶B.  (SBU) IOM continues to operate a toll-free "157" helpline 
for victims of trafficking.  Operators who speak Russian, 
Romanian, English and Turkish staff the helpline 24 hours per 
day.  The helpline became operational for international calls 
(90-312-157-1122) in April 2007 -- a significant achievement 
since a substantial portion of helpline tips come from 
family, acquaintances and other sources, and not from the 
victims themselves.  28 victims were rescued through the 
helpline in 2007, and one more victim between January 1 and 
February 15, 2008.  IOM reports that traffickers sometimes 
try to block the helpline through phony calls with unreadable 
numbers.  The TNP has requested the Ankara Prosecutor 
undertake an investigation.  Posters and billboards in 
regional airports and seaports advertise the helpline in 
Russian, Romanian, English and Turkish.  Turkey's accumulated 
efforts to publicize the helpline have had success:  IOM 
reports that media information accounted for nearly half the 
reported rescue requests through the helpline in 2007.  The 
Minister of Interior has authorized TNP to assume full 
operational responsibility for the helpline in the coming 
year.  The Ministry of Finance (MOF) has allocated the 
funding for nine staff positions, and TNP is preparing 
applications.  GOT authorities continue to distribute small 
passport inserts warning against TIP and advertising the 
helpline to at-risk travelers entering the country at key 
ports of entry.  Turkish consulates also hand out the inserts 
to visa applicants in source countries.  In 2007, the 
Jandarma published a guidebook on the fight against TIP to 
educate its officers on detecting TIP and has published a 
number of public awareness and training materials to be used 
at Jandarma outposts throughout Turkey.  Jandarma reported 
that 3,280 copies of the guidebook were distributed to its 
personnel last year (see part 2, septel).  TNP reported that 
in 2007 it distributed 1,000 copies of a similar guide for 
police, published in 2006. 
 
¶C.  (SBU) As noted, the GOT has a close, productive working 
relationship with NGOs and with IOM.  Ankara and Istanbul 
shelter operators FWS and HRDF, along with IOM, serve on the 
GOT interagency TIP taskforce.  TNP has the sole GOT mandate 
to identify trafficking victims.  It undertakes this 
responsibility in tandem with IOM and shelter representatives 
to ensure proper victim identification. 
 
The GOT takes a leading role in the regional fight against 
TIP.  It participated actively in regional anti-trafficking 
conferences and initiatives through the OSCE, UN Office on 
Drugs and Crimes (UNODC), the Southeast European Cooperation 
Initiative (SECI), the Council of Europe, Organization for 
Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC), the International 
Center for Migration/Budapest Process, and the Conference on 
Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA). 
As the 2007 BSEC Chairman, Turkey hosted a BSEC regional TIP 
seminar in Istanbul, in August 2007, and, as Budapest Process 
Chairman, it also hosted in Istanbul a joint 
UNODC/BSEC/Budapest Process conference on "Human Trafficking 
in the Black Sea."  On January 31-February 1, Turkey chaired 
the first CICA experts group meeting in Ankara, where it 
invited IOM's Pakistan-based Regional Representative and the 
Turkish National Police (TNP) to address the experts group on 
the struggle against TIP and strongly encouraged CICA Member 
states to take on TIP as a component of the CICA work 
program. 
 
¶D.  (SBU) The TNP monitors legal and illegal air, sea and 
land-based migration patterns for evidence of trafficking. 
Jandarma officers stationed along Turkey's borders are 
trained to detect TIP.  Jandarma now has specialized, 
anti-TIP teams operating at all (25) border crossings, up 
from five.  GOT officials do not have the authority to refuse 
or turn away visa applicants or travelers crossing the border 
from known source countries simply because they are at risk 
of becoming victimized when they arrive in Turkey, i.e., are 
young, single women. 
 
¶E.  (SBU) As noted, there is an interagency GOT taskforce led 
by MFA Director General for Consular Affairs Ambassador Kemal 
Gur.  Gur has expanded the taskforce and directed it to meet 
every other month.  It met quarterly during the reporting 
period, up from twice yearly the previous year.  In addition 
to MFA, the taskforce is officially composed of the following 
agencies, IGO and NGOs: 
 
¶1. MOJ - EU Directorate 
¶2. MOJ - Legislative Affairs Directorate 
¶3. MOJ - Penal Affairs Directorate 
¶4. MOJ - Judicial Records and Statistics Directorate 
¶5. MOJ - Training Department 
¶6. MOJ - International Law and Foreign Relations Directorate 
¶7. The Court of Appeals Presidency 
¶8. MOI - Jandarma General Command, Human Smuggling Crimes 
Department 
¶9. MOI - Coast Guard Command 
¶10. MOI - Foreign Relations and EU Coordination Department 
¶11. MOI - TNP, Foreigners, Borders and Asylum Department 
¶12. MOI - TNP, Public Order Department 
¶13. MOI - TNP, Smuggling and Organized Crime Department 
¶14. MOF - Budget and Financial Control Directorate 
¶15. MOF - Council to Investigate Financial Crimes 
¶16. MOH - Treatment Services Directorate 
¶17. MOH - Foreign relations Department 
¶18. MOL - Labor Department 
¶19. MOL - Foreign Relations and Worker Services Abroad 
Department 
¶20. EU Secretariat General - Political Affairs Department 
¶21. State Planning Organization Under Secretariat (Prime 
Ministry) 
¶22. Social Services and Orphanages Directorate (State 
Ministry) 
¶23. Status of Women and Children Directorate (State Ministry) 
¶24. Social Assistance and Solidarity Fund (Prime Ministry) 
¶25. Human Rights Presidency (Prime Ministry) 
¶26. Cankaya (Ankara) Sub-Governor - Social Assistance and 
Solidarity Foundation 
¶27. Ankara Metropolitan Municipality 
¶28. Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality 
¶29. Trabzon Metropolitan Municipality 
¶30. Antalya Metropolitan Municipality 
¶31. Izmir Metropolitan Municipality 
¶32. Artvin Municipality 
¶33. Igdir Municipality 
¶34. European Commission Turkey Representative 
¶35. IOM Turkey Representative 
¶36. Bar Association Union 
¶37. Human Resources Development Foundation (HRDF) 
¶38. Foundation for Women's Solidarity (FWS) 
 
We have not been informed of a specific TIP-related public 
corruption taskforce. 
 
¶F.  (SBU) The GOT has a national action plan to address TIP. 
The taskforce-participating agencies, NGOs, and IOM were 
involved in developing it.  It mandates close NGO, IGO and 
interagency cooperation.  The same agencies have drafted a 
new national action plan, currently awaiting the Prime 
Minister's signature and translation into English.  The new 
action plan will complement the ongoing two-year, 3 million 
Euro EC project aimed at shoring up sustainability in the 
fight against trafficking, notably though victim protection 
measures and law enforcement and judicial training.  (See 
Overview, para D, above.)  (We will further report on the EC 
project septel.) 
 
¶G.  (SBU) We are not aware of any specific measures taken by 
the GOT during the reporting period to reduce demand for 
 
commercial sex acts outside of the normal legal and zoning 
restrictions under which legal brothels operate.  However, 
IOM reported that, on March 7, as part of the EC project (see 
above), IOM will begin an investigation on demand for 
trafficked victims, with the particular aim of uncovering any 
evidence that might point to other forms of exploitation, 
notably labor.  Academics researchers are presently being 
selected. 
 
¶H.  (U) We have no evidence indicating Turkish nationals 
actively participate in international child sex tourism. 
 
¶I.  (SBU) Four Turkish military personnel (one each from the 
Land Forces and Naval Forces Command, and two from Jandarma) 
participated in a NATO Partnership for Peace (PfP) training, 
hosted by the Turkish PfP Training Center, February 18-22, 
2008, on the fight against TIP.  The training, also made 
available to other NATO and PfP country personnel, primarily 
from source countries, focused on the differences between 
human smuggling and TIP, victim identification, intelligence 
and data collection, database management, investigation 
techniques, as well as the role of NGOs, international 
organizations and civil society, and NATO policy on human 
trafficking.  In addition, the PfP Training Center provides 
an annual one week course on TIP to Turkish unit command 
assigned to peacekeeping operations.  Thirty Turkish 
personnel received the training in 2007. 
 
Visit Ankara's Classified Web Site at 
http://www.intelink.sgov.gov/wiki/Portal:Turk ey 
 
WILSON