VZCZCXYZ0000
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHAK #1343/01 2541403
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 111403Z SEP 09
FM AMEMBASSY ANKARA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0767
INFO RHEHAAA/NSC WASHDC
RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHDC

UNCLAS ANKARA 001343 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
SECSTATE FOR DRL/ILCSR 
LABOR FOR ILAB/OFCT 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ELAB PREL PGOV TU
SUBJECT: TURKEY: CHILD LABOR REPORT RUFFLES GOT 
 
REF: STATE 92560 
 
THIS MESSAGE IS SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED.  PLEASE HANDLE 
ACCORDINGLY.  TRANSMISSION VIA THE INTERNET IS PROHIBITED. 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Post delivered the points in reftel to 
appropriate officials in the Ministry of Labor and Social 
Security (MOLSS) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  The 
GOT's response ranged from moderately negative to baffled. 
Even though the USDOL report on Worst Forms of Child Labor 
(WFCL) and the Trafficking Victims Protection and 
Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) Report highlight Turkey's 
positive efforts to eradicate child labor, officials here see 
both reports as "punishing with the same hands that applaud," 
and see the TVPRA goods list as potentially harmful to our 
bilateral relationship.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2. (SBU) On September 8 Labor Attache (LABATT) demarched 
Huseyin Avni Aksoy, Head of the Department of Multilateral 
Economic Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), to 
discuss the release of both reports.  While recognizing the 
country profile for Turkey in the WFCL report each year 
explains Turkey's efforts to identify and eradicate child 
labor, he said the effect of publishing the TVPRA list on the 
same day was to "punish with the same hands that applaud." 
(NOTE: Even though the TVPRA goods list focuses on both 
forced and child labor, significant forced labor violations 
have not been documented in Turkey so the discussion focused 
only on child labor violations.  END NOTE.) 
 
¶3. (SBU) Aksoy said he had served in other countries where he 
witnessed much greater problems in child labor than those in 
Turkey, but was surprised that Turkey was going to appear 
alongside those same countries on the TVPRA list.  In Turkey, 
he said, the problem is relatively small and getting smaller 
due to intense government efforts, which have been recognized 
by the International Labor Organization (ILO).  Aksoy said 
that if a "proper differentiation" could be made between the 
widely varying situations in different countries, his 
government might be less opposed to the list.  However, he 
concluded, this list does nothing to solve the problem of 
child labor, it only applies disproportionate shame. 
 
¶4. (SBU) On September 9, LABATT discussed the reports with 
Nafiz Karakulah, the newly appointed head of a newly formed 
department in the MOLSS that will encompass three offices on 
child labor, women's issues and the labor of the 
"disadvantaged" (a mandate yet to be clearly defined, though 
it will probably include convicts and the disabled). 
Karakulah assumed his position two days before the meeting. 
A veteran of the MOLSS for over 20 years, he admitted he had 
negligible past experience working on child labor issues. 
Initially friendly and calm, he gave a prepared presentation 
on the GOT's programs on child labor.  However, after LABATT 
raised the release of the WFCL and TVPRA reports, Karakulah 
acted surprised and then became irascible, accusing the USG 
of using rumors, media reports and speculative opinions to 
exaggerate the problem of child labor in Turkey. 
 
¶5. (SBU) When it was explained that the statistics for the 
WFCL came from his own ministry's Office of Inspections, he 
said that anyone in the MOLSS who gave statistics to the USG 
on the TVPRA goods that were listed was not authorized to do 
so.  When LABATT clarified that the TVPRA report used 
additional sources like an ILO report from 2003 to support 
its claims, Karakulah said any reports about the child labor 
issue that were not recently published by the GOT's State 
Institute for Statistics (TUIK) could not be considered 
representative data, and that since the problem was 
statistically so small, anecdotal reports should not be 
considered significant.  (NOTE: The last TUIK report on labor 
statistics that discussed the child labor issue was published 
in 2006. END NOTE.)  Karakulah threatened to require the 
Embassy to obtain any future labor statistics through 
diplomatic note requests via the MFA, and said he would ask 
his Minister to call the Ambassador to protest if the report 
was published.  When LABATT explained that the report had 
been open for public comment in Washington in 2008 and was 
going to be published by the Department of Labor the 
following day, he said there would be serious negative 
consequences for the U.S.-Turkey bilateral relationship as a 
result. 
 
¶6. (SBU) COMMENT:  While the release of the reports was not 
picked up by the Turkish media on September 10 or 11, any 
future coverage is unlikely to improve Post's working 
relationship with Karakulah's office.  After his meeting with 
Labor Attache, Karakulah phoned the head of the MOLSS Office 
of Inspections and accused Post's source, a veteran 
inspector, of "speaking to foreigners without authorization." 
 Post's source was later harangued by her supervisor, 
although she defended her actions because the information she 
released to Post is public.  This is likely to complicate our 
future data collection. 
 
JEFFREY 
 
           "Visit Ankara's Classified Web Site at http://www.intelink.s 
gov.gov/wiki/Portal:Turkey"