TIP IN TURKEY: TURKISH MEDIA ATTENTION, July 16-31,

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ANKARA 004481 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: TURKISH MEDIA ATTENTION, July 16-31, 2005 ¶1. In response to G/TIP inquiries, national and international media sources published the following news articles about TIP in Turkey. Text of articles originally published in Turkish is provided through unofficial local FSN translation. ¶2. Published by Sabah on Sunday, July 17: TITLE: If an Imam would do this BEGIN TEXT: A former imam has been found to be a pimp. 53-year-old former imam Mutallip Var was arrested red- handed for selling women. "Yes, he sells us," accused one of three foreign women that the former imam tried to sell to the gendarmerie. The women said that Var sold them to men and received money for it. Former imam Mutallip Var was caught red-handed selling three foreign women in Samsun. Gendarmerie teams, acting on information that women were being sold in the Milic holiday resort region of Terme, contracted with Var, a former imam, for three women for two hours for a price of 80,000 YTL. The team, meeting with the imam and three women, giving marked money, got into a car with the three women and left the scene. "I was only a broker" The other team arrested the imam and his taxi driver in a pine grove on the Milic River. Var, who in 1975 was excommunicated, refusing the charge while being interrogated, said he was only a helper and for that got 20 million TL. Var was released until his court case can be heard. END TEXT. ¶3. Published by B92 News Serbia on Monday, July 18: TITLE: Progress in regional crime cooperation BEGIN TEXT: Belgrade-Monday-An agreement has been signed in Belgrade which will result in better regional cooperation in dealing with organized crime. The agreement on funding the Secretariat of the South- East Europe Prosecutors Advisory Group was signed by Justice Minister Zoran Stojkovic, the US ambassador to Belgrade, Michael Polt, and the deputy head of the OSCE Mission in Serbia-Montenegro, Douglas Wake. The organization, which will be based in the Federal Government building in Belgrade, is intended to enable the provision of legal assistance to countries in the region, such as assistance in investigation and pursuit �00A; of international criminal groups who are involved in organized crime and human trafficking. The secretariat is to have a total of thirteen members and Djordje Mancic from Serbia-Montenegro has been nominated to lead it. Stojkovic said that after the signing that it was a demonstration of the trust placed by the international community in Serbia-Montenegro and emphasized that the state organs would do everything possible to enable prosecutions to function as they should. Polt said that, with the establishment of the secretariat, the state union had sent a signal to the countries of the region that it was prepared for cooperation. State prosecutors of Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, Macedonia, Moldavia, Romania, Slovenia, Turkey and Croatia join Serbia- Montenegro in the initiative. The organization was founded in Belgrade in December, 2003, on the initiative of Serbia-Montenegro. END TEXT. ¶4. Published by People's Daily Online (http://english.people.com.cn/) on Tuesday, July 19: TITLE: Prosecutors' organization opens its secretariat in Belgrade BEGIN TEXT: A Southeast European prosecutors' organization opened its secretariat in Belgrade on Monday with the aim of helping prosecutors in the region fight against organized crimes. The secretariat of the South East Europe Prosecutors Advisory Group (SEEPAG) was set up after the signing of an agreement on financing between the Serbian Justice Ministry, OSCE Mission to Serbia-Montenegro, and the US Embassy in Belgrade. The secretariat headed by Serbia-Montenegro Djordje Mancic, would facilitate mutual legal assistance between 12 Southeast Europe countries as well as the assistance in the investigation and prosecution of trans-border crime and human trafficking. Serbian Minister of Justice Zoran Stojkovic said the signing of the agreement was proof of trust in Serbia- Montenegro and the Serbian government and their readiness to combat organized crime. It also shows that the country has enough resources to create a communication center for all 12 prosecutors from the region. SEEPAG is a multinational mechanism that facilitates cooperation among the prosecutors from Albania, Bosnia- Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Macedonia, Moldova, Romania, Serbia-Montenegro, Slovenia and Turkey. It was formed in December 2003 at the initiative of Serbia-Montenegro. END TEXT. ¶5. Published by Athens News Agency on Friday, July 22: TITLE: Greek Disband Ring of Immigrant Smugglers, Make Four Arrests BEGIN FBIS TRANSCRIBED TEXT: Police have disbanded an organized ring of immigrant smugglers, who used to bring illegal immigrants from Asian countries into Greece, and arrested four Iranians on Thursday aged between 22 and 31. The four, together with another Iranian and an Afghani who are still at large, brought 12 illegal immigrants from Turkey in a speedboat and kept them captive in an apartment until payment was made of an amount ranging between 1,000 and 4,000 euros each, which had been agreed for their transfer. The illegal immigrants were being kept under appalling conditions, they were given little food and were being threatened to oblige their relatives to pay their debts to enable them to be freed. Police found seven illegal immigrants in the apartment, whom they freed, while investigations are continuing for the arrest of the remaining members of the ring. END FBIS TRANSCRIBED TEXT. ¶6. Published by Hurriyet on Friday, July 29: TITLE: Thirty Thousand Deported for Prostitution in a Decade BEGIN TEXT: The Turkish National Police responded with figures to the U.S. State Department and the UN, which accused the Turkish police of not fighting enough against human trafficking. According to the statistics of the TNP, from 1996 to 2005 (June),a total of 30,073 foreign women who were involved in prostitution were deported. In 2004, 239 women from 11 neighboring countries who were forced into prostitution were saved from the hands of human traffickers. This figure for the first six months of 2005 was 126 from 12 neighboring countries. In 2004, 227 human traffickers were captured and action was taken against them. This figure was 251 for 2005. Sixty-seven of the 78 people who were captured for human trafficking and put in jail were discharged to be tried on release. Five foreigners were deported and 63 people are wanted. In the last five years a total of 241 foreign women were deported for carrying contagious diseases. END TEXT. ¶7. Published by Radikal on Friday, July 29: TITLE: Turkey Turns Into Prostitution Center BEGIN TEXT: The Turkish National Police data confirmed the UN and U.S. reports that noted that a great majority of women kidnapped for prostitution were employed in Turkey. According to the statistics of the TNP, in a decade more than 30,000 foreign women were captured and deported for being involved in prostitution. According to statistics of the TNP Foreigners, Borders and Asylum Department, the number of foreign women who were deported for prostitution were: 1996 3069 1997 4083 1998 4920 1999 3643 2000 3529 2001 3504 2002 2559 2003 1775 2004 1990 2005 1001 The total number of foreign women who were captured for prostitution in the past decade was 30,073. In the last five years 2372 foreign women were captured in Trabzon and 241 of them were carrying contagious diseases. As a result of the work jointly performed in the last two years with the source countries and NGOs, 365 foreign women were saved from prostitution. Among them were 91 Moldavians, 71 Russians, 60 Ukrainians, 31 Kyrgyz, 26 Azeris, 21 Georgians, 18 Romanians, 14 Kazakh, 14 Uzbek, eight Belarusian, one Bulgarian, one Iranian and four Turkomans. Judicial action was taken against 251 people who forced foreign women into prostitution and 78 of them were arrested while 67 of them were released pending trial. Turkey, which has turned into a destination country in women trafficking for prostitution, has been a subject to two separate reports by the UN and the U.S. this year. According to the UN report, 40 percent of the kidnapped women for prostitution were forced to work in Istanbul, while 16 percent in Antalya and Ankara. In the U.S. "Human Trafficking Report" Turkey was listed in Tier 2 among states that have turned into destination countries. END TEXT. MCELDOWNEY