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