Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
05ANKARA4481
2005-08-02 13:28:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Embassy Ankara
Cable title:  

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

Tags:  PREL KCRM PHUM KWMN SMIG KFRD PREF TU 
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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


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
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