TIP in Turkey: Media Attention from July 1 to 31, 2006

UNCLAS ANKARA 004469

SIPDIS

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: Media Attention from July 1 to 31, 2006

1.(U) Summary: During the four-week reporting period, the Turkish
media continued to cover trafficking in persons (TIP)-related
stories, including several Turkish National Police (TNP) and
jandarma operations and two murder investigations. End Summary.

2.(U) Media reported on several police and jandarma crackdowns on
foreign prostitution and trafficking, including:

-- "Radikal" on July 2, 2006, reported that the Konya police raided
a house and saved K.Y. (15),who was forced into prostitution for
four months. Police detained 20 people.

--"Hurriyet" and "Sabah" on July 3, 2006, wrote that the Istanbul
police, who, working undercover as rich businessmen, bargained with
Imam K. (49),who was selling foreign women in Pendik district.
Police detained him and, based on his testimony, raided a house in
the same district and detained his girlfriend Selma L. The police
also saved Ukrainian Natalia M., who was staying at that house.
Natalia told the police that she arrived in Turkey to work as a
nanny and complained that she was forced into prostitution.

-- Anatolian News Agency reported on July 5 that the police raided
some sites in Kusadasi and detained 80 foreign women who were
working as prostitutes. The next day AA reported that the number of
detainees reached 117, including six organizers. The police also
seized seven unregistered guns and hundreds of bullets.

-- "Radikal" on July 9 reported that the Aydin police raided 22
sites, including 11 hotels in Aydin and Kusadasi, and detained 116
foreign women and 27 traffickers. Police seized nine pistols, 208
bullets, a pump-action rifle, a sword and knives. Seven traffickers
were jailed. The Kusadasi sub-governor shut down for 165 days the
11 hotels involved in prostitution.

-- "Sabah" and "Aksam" on July 19 reported that the Yalova public
prosecutor ordered the detention of four officials for providing
passports to foreign prostitutes and not deporting those who
overstayed their visa. They also allegedly received bribes. The
next day "Radikal" reported that the gang was paying $3000-5000 for
forged marriage and citizenship documents and $300-500 for temporary
residence permits. On July 23, "Radikal" reported that the
prosecutor ordered the arrest of nine of the 15 suspects, including
Yalova Foreigners Police Chief Haydar Gumuskaya and Yalova
Population Affairs Director Ziver Zikri Demirel. Six other
suspects, including five foreign women, were released on their own
recognizance; they are expected to appear at trial.

--"Sabah" on July 20 reported that three people admitted to the
Konya police that they killed Pinar Ozayaz (16),who was forced into
prostitution. Pinar was sexually harassed when she was 9-years old
by the man who was living with her mother. She fell into the hands
of a prostitution ring when she was 15. Ozayaz was killed along
with Hatice Col and brother Irfan Col three months ago. They were
killed by the three who confessed to the murder: Ismail Erturk,
Halil Ibrahim Alvin and Ilker Baltaci, because the victims had
helped another girl Duygu Yesim Cilem escape from the gang. The
gang was torturing women with razors. Only D.Y.C. managed to
escape.

-- "Sabah" on July 26 reported that the police detained 22 people
for prostitution. After learning that the murders were committed
because of prostitute Duygu Yesim Cilem, police officer Ms. Gulden
Erdogdu (27) dressed like a prostitute and tried to reach Cilem, who
reportedly was working along the Eregli-Hatay highway. She talked
to ten prostitutes who admitted that they were dragged into
prostitution after being raped at a very early age. She reached
Cilem in Hatay. Cilem told her that she ran away from the gang that
was forcing her into prostitution.
Police sent 20 of the 25 suspects to judicial hall and requested
that they be put under arrest.

-- "Hurriyet" on July 24 reported that the Jandarma saved 14 foreign
women who were forced into prostitution in Istanbul. The Jandarma
raided the "Marmara Piramit Hotel" and, in a small room hidden
behind a mirror, found four Moldovan women, who said that they were
brought to Turkey one month ago and forced into prostitution.
Some of the women had hepatitis B and gonorrhea. The manager of the
hotel, Ismail Toprak, was detained. The owner of the hotel, Irfan
Bacioglu, and his son Ali Bacioglu were detained many times in the
past for the same crime. They, too, were detained.

--The web pages of newspapers on July 26 reported that Erhan
Sertkaya (28) stabbed and killed his Azeri girlfriend Tamasa
Ismailova, who was working as a prostitute. On July 24, Sertkaya
reportedly quarreled with her in Istanbul and stabbed her ten times.
Sertkaya told the police that they had been seeing each other for
two years, and that, although he wanted to save her from this life
by proposing to marry her, she rejected him.

--"Hurriyet," "Sabah" and "Aksam" on July 28, 2006, reported that
the Jandarma detained members of a gang that was selling foreign
women as sex slaves in Kemer, Antalya.

-- A "Show TV" reporter, disguised as a client, bargained with gang
members who took him to a house where Russian, Moldovan and Azeri
women were put at his disposal. The gang charged $3000-9000 per
woman, depending on how beautiful she was. The reporter reached a
deal to buy eight women. The gang leader gave him the passports.
Immediately after this deal, the Jandarma raided the house and
detained seven gang members and eight foreign women, including a
Russian woman (19) who was 5.5 months pregnant. A judge placed five
of the seven gang members under arrest.

MCELDOWNEY