TURKS PUT ON POOR SHOW AT ISTANBUL TIP CONFERENCE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ANKARA 005342

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT, FOR, G/TIP, G, INL, DRL, EUR/PGI, EUR/SE

E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/14/2015
TAGS: PREL KCRM PHUM KWMN SMIG KFRD PREF TU
SUBJECT: TURKS PUT ON POOR SHOW AT ISTANBUL TIP CONFERENCE


Classified By: POL Counselor Janice Weiner, for reasons 1.4 (b) & (d).


1. (C) SUMMARY: Despite a prime opportunity to provide
valuable input in the August 25-27 TIP conference, the
Turkish MFA, academia, and gendarmerie representatives
dropped the ball. From not understanding the difference
between smuggling and trafficking, to shamelessly touting
Turkey's liberal visa regime, to blaming their neighbors, the
Turkish presenters made the worst of a great opportunity and
left a bad impression on many of their foreign guests.
Presenters wasted time explaining what everyone already knew,
and failed adequately to discuss possible solutions to
regional TIP. END SUMMARY.


2. (U) Istanbul's Bahcesehir University hosted the August
25-27 "Trafficking in Persons in South East Europe: A Threat
to Human Security" workshop. The Turkish Ministry of Foreign
Affairs (MFA) Center for Strategic Research (SAM),the
Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and
Security Studies Institutes, Regional Stability in South
East Europe Study Group (RSSEE),and the International
Organization for Migration (IOM) jointly organized this
workshop.

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What the Turks had to say
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3. (U) Ambassador Murat Bilhan, Chairman of SAM, opened the
conference by saying that by virtue of Turkey's location, it
has become the conduit of both good (gas and oil) and evil
(international crime). At the end of each day, Bilhan
repeatedly asked the audience to give him a portrait of the
typical trafficker. Despite members advising Bilhan that
there is no typical trafficker, he persisted in asking the
question.


4. (C) Bahcesehir University Professor Nilufer Narli opined
that while economic factors were important, there is a strong
political factor involved in human trafficking. She cited
examples of political persecution in Iran and Iraq pushing
their citizens to migrate to Turkey. (Comment: Professor
Narli, like many of her compatriots, clearly does not have an
understanding of the difference between smuggling and
trafficking. End Comment.) During a CNN Turk interview with
Professor Narli, she babbled on about smuggling, much to the
dismay of IOM's Ankara Chief of Mission, Marielle
Sander-Lindstrom.


5. (U) Captain Ilker Temel, Chief of the Turkish Jandarma's
Counter-Trafficking Unit, mentioned the TIP Report and
asserted that though Tier 3 countries were subject to
sanctions, he has never seen any implemented, making the
rating useless. MFA officials nodded in agreement. Temel
listed problems with law enforcement in battling TIP,
including lack of training, no database, players not knowing
their counterparts in other countries, and the insufficient
number of experts. Ambassador N. Murat Ersavci, MFA's
Director General for Consular Affairs, lauded Captain Temel
and the Jandarma, saying Temel's presentation was the first
time Ersavci had seen law enforcement being candid and open.
Ersavci also suggested IOM be the contact point for law
enforcement agencies.


6. (U) Akif Ayhan, MFA's Deputy Director General for
Consular Affairs, admitted that TIP is a problem for Turkey,
which has "inherited some issues of this phenomenon from our
neighborhood." He warned the audience that he was going to
say something very provocative and then, with fervor,
proclaimed that there are no means to eradicate TIP from this
planet - we can, he stated, only diminish the impact and
lessen the damage TIP causes. This drew blank stares from
the audience. Ayhan insisted that the Organization for Black
Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) is the logical international
body to handle the TIP issue in the region. Ayhan declared
that Turkey, with its renowned hospitality, "peaceful and
easy" lifestyle and liberal visa regime, was a natural lure
for migrants. He then asked rhetorically why anyone would
want to go through the hassle of getting a Schengen visa when
a visa to Turkey is only 10 USD.


7. (U) Ayhan commended Turkey as having a "free and open
society" and asserted the GOT had been brave to start the
anti-trafficking campaign. He congratulated the Human
Resources Development Foundation on their TIP shelter in
Istanbul and announced that Ankara Shelter will open in
September. He claimed that there are plans for shelters in
Trabzon and Antalya. (Comment: We have not seen any action
or plans. End Comment.) Ayhan vowed that the GOT is
"adamant and keen" to do "everything" to combat the TIP
problem, though Turkey "is not the hub of trafficking" and
that those journalists reporting on TIP in Turkey "are
biased." In his closing statements, Ayhan lamented that a
major obstacle to battling TIP in Turkey is funding. Funds,
he stated, should not be used to train, as there are too many
training programs already, but rather be used for "day-to-day
expenses and down-to-earth issues."


8. (U) In response to the question of repatriation of
trafficking victims, Akif Ayhan explained that Turkey grants
six-month humanitarian visas (called residence permits)
without question to all trafficking victims. Inspector
Fikret Isgoren, MOI's head of the Bureau of Foreigners,
Borders and Asylum, claimed, however, there is careful
evaluation before issuing the visas/permits. Both Ayhan and
Isgoren claimed the GOT provides trafficking victims free
medical assistance.


9. (C) Isgoren, originally slated to give a presentation,
backed out at the last minute, according to Livia Vedrasco,
IOM Vienna. She was irked that he exceed what would have
been his allotted ten minutes answering a question, and
blamed Turkey's neighbors for not working with the GOT.


10. (U) Unlike other Turkish presenters, Tuba Dundar,
Program Coordinator for HRDF, was clear and concise as she
reported on the funding and working of Turkey's first TIP
shelter in Istanbul.


11. (U) Basak Kale, a researcher at Middle East Technical
University's Department for International Relations and
Center for European Studies, like HRDF's Dundar, presented
lucid and logical commentary on Turkey's TIP problem and how
EU accession has boosted the necessity for the GOT to work on
the issues.


12. (U) Lt. Colonel Birol Tekince from the NATO Partnership
for Peace Mobile Training Team in Turkey explained that with
assistance from IOM, the team provided training on TIP and
smuggling issues to judges, prosecutors and border control
officials.

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The "Foreigners'" Take
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13. (U) Elina Siderova, an IOM counter-trafficking project
staff member working in the Istanbul shelter, recounted
stories of victims in Turkey.


14. (C) Marielle Sander-Lindstrom, Chief of IOM Ankara,
praised the GOT for "not blaming anyone else" for its
trafficking problem and for working on remedies to the
problem "not because the GOT has been told to, but because it
is the right thing to do." Lindstrom told PolOff at a break
that she was floored and embarrassed at Ayhan's presentation,
and that he and Ersavci usually "were not like that."


15. (C) Helga Konrad, OSCE's Special Representative on
Combating Trafficking in Human Beings, attended the opening
night dinner. HRDF's Dundar told PolOff that Konrad paid a
visit to the Shelter and "was impressed."


16. (C) COMMENT: Though a good portion of the dialogue
could have and should have been focused on finding possible
solutions to the TIP problem, it was not. Unfortunately, all
but a few speakers spent time and countless powerpoint slides
explaining what everyone already knew. END COMMENT.
MCELDOWNEY