TIP IN TURKEY: TURKISH MEDIA ATTENTION, September

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 05 ANKARA 005948 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, September 16-30, 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 Bu Gun on Saturday, September 17: TITLE: Fire to Prostitution BEGIN TEXT: A fire started by the explosion of a propane gas cylinder revealed a prostitution nest. Prostitutes were nearly killed. An explosion of a propane gas cylinder in a tea room of the Yesil Payas Hotel in Erzurum revealed that the hotel was being used as a place of prostitution. In a short period, the first floor of the hotel was engulfed in flames. As the fire department was fighting the fire, women were saved from their beds from certain death. The Hotelier is Injured A team of firefighters found 28-year-old Azeri Gullare Bayramova and hotel worker Gurbuz Boz in a half-dressed and injured state. Also saved by the firefighting team were Azeri citizens Arzu Navdar, Vefa Huseyinova, Huseyin Cakinay and Kyrgyz citizen Bayova Braley and Sulaliyova Aysunov, all practicing prostitution. END TEXT. ¶3. Reported by Sabah on Monday, September 19: TITLE: Human Smugglers are Organized BEGIN TEXT: The measures taken by the Interior Ministry against human and immigrant smuggling have begun to bear fruit. Although the number of smugglers who charge between $1000-5000 per person has increased, the number of illegal immigrants has decreased. In 2003, 1,599 immigrants and 72 smugglers were captured; last year there were 479 victims and 95 organizers captured. In 2003, there were 263 operations against smuggling, and in 2004 324 operations, many of them done with international cooperation. Among the organizers were Turks, a Greek ship captain, Iraqis and Iranians. Smugglers smuggle immigrants particularly from Africa, China, Iraq, Iran and Egypt to Europe. According to the new Turkish Penal Code, those involved in human smuggling and trafficking can be punished with imprisonment from three to eight years. Financial resources obtained through these crimes are considered as money laundering and that money and vehicles used are confiscated. For the fact that some European countries accept the political asylum demands of illegal immigrants for various reasons and that international humanitarian assistance organizations are providing financial assistance to people who are subject to illegal passages, immigrant smuggling is believed to be accelerating. END TEXT. ¶4. Published by Kathiemerini (Greece's International English Language newspaper) on Tuesday, September 20: TITLE: Turkish coast guard fire on immigrant boat, one dead BEGIN TEXT: Turkish coast guards opened fire on a boat carrying about 30 illegal immigrants to Greece overnight, authorities said yesterday. One Syrian immigrant was killed and two people, including a Greek crew member, were injured. The coast guard opened fire when the Greek boat did not heed calls to stop and attempted to escape toward the Greek island of Chios off the Aegean port city of Izmir, authorities said. Two Greek crew members were expected to be charged with human trafficking. END TEXT. ¶5. Also published by Kathiemerini on Tuesday, September 20: TITLE: Trafficker caught on Samos after chase as Turks open fire on Greek smugglers BEGIN TEXT: Coast guard officials said they detained 29 illegal immigrants on the island of Samos yesterday and arrested the captain of the ship that transported them into the country. After a six-hour manhunt, officials located the boat and man in charge of the vessel, a Turkish national. The illegal immigrants, from different countries, were taken to the island's migrant detention center. Meanwhile, two Greeks were arrested in Turkey after being fired at coast guards while attempting to smuggle 30 migrants to Greece. END TEXT. ¶6. Written by columnist Saves Ay and published in Sabah on Thursday, September 22: TITLE: From Ecstasy to Heroin and Girls who are Sex Slaves BEGIN TEXT: When ecstasy was found in Ata's blood, eyes were again focused on this disease. If you are following the comprehensive study by zlem and Gungor from the Central News Agency, you might have already read that this disease is spreading to almost the entire nation. I want to relate a true story and by increasing the tremor, bring it to the attention of those who are slumbering. I'll tell you the story of a black well that sucks up not only our own citizens, but foreign youngsters as well. The newly-rich and those who want to be a part of high society have striking demands. They order beautiful eastern bloc women from international human traffickers. Their goal is to make these young and well-bred women be tools for their sexual fantasies and turn them into sex slaves in return for a few hundred dollars. Ceyan, a young and beautiful musician from the Ukraine, is one of them and let me tell you her story. She is lucky because an honest Anatolian young man fell in love with her. He (Ibo) fell in love with her at first sight and began a struggle against this bloody and vicious dark gang. First he managed to pull Ceyan out of the prostitution and heroin quagmire. He saved her from the brothel of Oksana, who serves as a pimp with the codename "Blonde Dragon." Later he took Ceyan, who frequently suffered from heroin withdrawal, to treatment and waited with her for hours as an outpatient in the emergency ward of hospitals. His goal was to take her to AMATEM (a special hospital for addicts) where she would receive real therapy. But he neither had the legal nor the financial means to do such a thing. Ibrahim had a hard time but he applied to the Istanbul Police Department. With information obtained from Ceyan and Ibrahim, the police raided many addresses. At each address they encountered many young women who were drug addicts. In secret places they found heroin, hashish and ecstasy, known as the "bridge pill." These evil pills are called "bridge" because they let its users pass on to heroin eventually. When the investigation continued in depth, they reached a gang leader called Omer, whose codename was "Black Snake." After long work, police determined where the Black Snake's house and store were. Raiding his home, police found foreign women, Turkish youngsters, one and a half kilos of heroin, 3,000 USD in cash and a 6.35 mm pistol. Police found out that Omer was in touch with a Van- based heroin network and that the Narcotics Police had been searching for him already. Thus the entire gang was pulled down and the criminals were brought to justice. As a result of all her help, Ceyan was offered treatment. She bid goodbye to her love Ibrahim and entered AMATEM. In conversations with her doctors, she said, "I was a person who was going to a conservatory and representing my country by playing the cello. First ecstasy and later hashish and other pills, and later without realizing how, I began to use heroin." END TEXT. ¶7. Reported by Anatoly Janis on Friday, September 23: TITLE: Prostitution Operation in Izmir BEGIN TEXT: Four women of Ukrainian citizenship and a Turkish man who reportedly forced them into prostitution were captured in the Hatay District of Izmir. The Izmir Police conducted an operation and captured the four Ukrainian women who were brought to Turkey to serve as nannies, but actually were forced into prostitution. The Public Order Department Morals Police conducted the operation on a house on Inonu Street where foreign women allegedly were forced into prostitution. The police team, with the orders of the prosecutor, raided the house and captured Ukrainian citizens O.K. (19),O.O. (21),T.S. (23) and L.Z. (21). The women were taken to the police department where they claimed they were brought to Turkey to work as nannies. They claimed that some people here took away their passports and forced them into prostitution. They were turned over to the Foreigners' Police. G.K., who was charged with human trafficking, was sent to the Izmir Judicial Hall. G.K. as a record of human trafficking and the information found on him was shared with the Ukrainian police. END TEXT. ¶8. Published by Milliyet on Thursday, September 29 and Vatan and Sabah on Friday, September 30: BEGIN TEXT: Five people who allegedly forced a 14-year- old girl to enter relations with many people in return for money were captured and two are being searched for. Five people were captured in Antalya and two are being searched for forcing a 14-year-old girl to enter relationship with many people in return for money. AA reporter has learned that HA (14) ran away from home and began to work at a bar. MB (28),GA (38),IE (23) and MCE (26),who were working at the same bar, forced her to be with men in return for money and later forced her to go with two unidentified people in return for 1000 YTL. These people reportedly forced her to work as a prostitute at a house that belonged to TB (43) in the Mayan District. HA called the 155 police hotline when she got the chance. The police saved her when she told them that she was kept in a house and was forced into having sex with men in return for money. MB, GA, IE and MCE, who forced her into prostitution, and TB, the owner of the house, were detained. The police are searching for the other two people. HA, who was forced to be with many men, is three and half months pregnant. END TEXT. ¶9. Published by Mail&Guardianonline (www.mg.co.za) on Thursday, September 29: TITLE: Deaths highlight EU immigration troubles BEGIN TEXT: The deaths of five people during a night of clashes on the Spanish-Moroccan border on Thursday once again threw into focus the growing pressure exerted by illegal immigration on the gateways into the European Union across the Mediterranean Sea. Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero met his Moroccan counterpart Driss Jettou in Seville on Thursday for talks on the problem following the unrest on Morocco's border with Ceuta, a Spanish enclave on the North African coast. Five people died before dawn when hundreds of would-be immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa attempted to storm the border fence around the enclave, just across the Strait of Gilbraltar that divides Africa from mainland Europe. The European Commission called on its member to bolster cooperation with third countries to avert similar incidents. Spain's troubles are by no means unique among its fellow EU member-states that border the Mediterranean. All face a daily challenge in trying to contain illegal immigration, while also respecting the rights of potential asylum-seekers. According to the Italian interior ministry, more than 7,500 would-be immigrants landed in the first half of 2005 on the southern island of Lampedusa, a focal point for people arriving from the coats of Libya and Tunisia. Malta faces a similar challenge, compounded by its small size, and multiplied in gravity since the island joined the European Union. Valetta on September 27 warned the arrival of 235 stowaways over the weekend threatened to plunge the island nation into a humanitarian crisis, and appealed to Brussels for help. "It is equivalent to the arrival of 23,500 people in Sicily," said Maltese Interior Minister Tonio Borg. In Cyprus, heightened vigilance against illegal immigration landed the authorities in trouble in June, when a group of Chinese travel agents invited to promote the island was mistakenly detained by airport immigration officials. In contrast to Malta and Cyprus, which effectively have one coastline to monitor, Greece has dozens of islands and islets scattered across the Aegean Sea facing Turkey, a region where Greek coastguard patrols make scores of interceptions every month. The coastguard reported 3,047 arrests in 2004, and 1,280 interceptions by June 30 this year. A more perilous option is the overland route across the Greek-Turkish border, which was mined following the Turkish invasion of northern Cyprus in 1974, and where more than 70 migrants have been killed since 1994, according to a toll compiled by Agence France Presse. Turkey, which aspires to join the European Union, has long been a major route for immigrants from poor Asian and African countries trying to sneak into prosperous Europe, but officials say the influx has been somewhat reduced after Ankara toughened sanctions against trafficking. About 387,000 illegal immigrants and about 5,000 suspected traffickers were detained between 2000 and 2004, official statistics show. According to a 2003 report by the international organization for Migration (IOM),the annual number of illegal immigrants transiting through Turkey may be estimated to be around 200,000. The IOM report predicted that the business of sneaking migrants across Turkey likely involved half a billion US dollars (415 million Euros) per year, on the assumption that a migrant pays an average of 2,500 USD to traffickers. Earlier this month, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said governments should do more to facilitate migrant disembarkation, lest ship captains be discouraged from even fishing them out of the water in future. Italy, which recently expelled a number of illegal immigrants to Libya under a bilateral accord never made public, has been roundly criticized by the European Court of Human Rights and the European Parliament for not allowing people to apply for asylum. On September 20, thirteen European parliamentarians accused Rome of emptying an immigrant holding camp on Lampedusa island, just before they arrived to inspect it. They also argued that cramped conditions at the camp raised concern of human rights abuse. END TEXT. ¶10. Reported by ITAR-TASS on Friday, September 30: TITLE: Human trafficking business booming in Tajikistan BEGIN TEXT: Tajikistan has tightened punishment for the engagement in prostitution, but the illegal business is booming just the same, Nuritdin Amirkulov from the presidential administration said at the Dushanbe conference on human trafficking on Friday. He said the Tajik police had opened 59 criminal cases on the human trafficking charge in 2005. This is nearly twice more than last year, he said. This September alone the police exposed nine cases of the engagement in prostitution and exposed several human trafficking businesses. The women are transported to brothels in the Middle East, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, India and some other countries. Twenty-six women were returned to Tajikistan this summer as a result of lengthy negotiations with Dubai authorities, a Tajik deputy interior minister said. No fewer than 40 Tajik women are still in white slavery in United Arab Emirates, according to the official statistics. Conference delegates said the problem can be resolved only in cooperation with non-governmental and international organizations. END TEXT. MCELDOWNEY