US embassy cable - 03ANKARA7492

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ANKARA 007492 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
STATE FOR OES/PCI, OES/IHA AND S/GAC 
 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EAID, ECIN, KHIV, SENV, SOCI, TU 
SUBJECT: BLACK SEA STATES TO CREATE NETWORK TO COMBAT AIDS 
OUTBREAK 
 
 
1.  Action Request -- See para 7. 
 
 
2.  Summary:  The Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC), in 
cooperation with UN agencies, wants to establish a regional 
network to address the growing risk of an AIDS outbreak in 
the Black Sea region.  The concept has been endorsed by BSEC 
Foreign Ministers; BSEC hopes the network will help focus 
attention by the individual national governments and 
galvanize regional information-sharing and cooperation.  BSEC 
and UN representatives will meet in March to put the project 
in motion.  They are eager for U.S. participation in that 
meeting and in the ongoing work of the network.  End Summary. 
 
 
3.  AIDS Threat:  BSEC and local UN officials are 
increasingly concerned about growing warning signs of an 
impending AIDS outbreak in the region.  Ankara-based UNICEF 
coordinator Mehmet Kontas, the chief UN official working on 
the network, said that national governments are aware of the 
risks but their responses have been generally poor.  He said 
Turkey, for example, continues to stand by official reports 
that AIDS cases have remained flat at about 1400 in recent 
years, when NGOs and the UN think that the number is much 
larger and poised to increase more.  He pointed out that 
there are 20,000 unregistered sex workers in Istanbul alone 
) many of whom come from Russian, Ukraine and Moldova, where 
higher infection rates prevail ) and Turkey is an important 
corridor for illegal immigration, and trafficking in drugs 
and humans.  The police reported the arrest of 13,335 
criminals last year involved in smuggling/trafficking 
operations.  34,072 persons were detained in connection with 
human trafficking. 
 
 
4.  BSEC Initiative:  The BSEC is a relatively new regional 
organization comprised of 11 countries in the extended Black 
Sea region (Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, 
Greece, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine).  It 
includes 330 million people and several countries at risk of 
an AIDS epidemic.  Although many of the member government 
have been slow to act against AIDS, BSEC foreign ministers 
endorsed a proposal to establish a regional network to 
address the threat.  BSEC is working closely with UN 
officials, who will provide technical expertise for the 
project. 
 
 
5.  The objective is to create a Network of Liaison Experts 
from the BSEC Member States, supported by experts from 
relevant UN agencies.  The network hopes to foster 
cooperation on surveillance, testing and treatment, awareness 
raising and capacity building.  The first meeting will be 
help in March in Istanbul.  BSEC member representatives will 
make presentations about the extent of AIDS in their 
countries and national efforts to address the problem.  BSEC 
expects that initial costs to establish the network will be 
about USD 15,000.  (Note:  BSEC is not asking for U.S. 
financial support.) 
 
 
6.  We believe this is a serious and worthy undertaking. 
BSEC is an underutilized regional organization.  It provides 
an important institutional framework to quickly establish the 
network, and it can muster support at the highest level in 
the member governments.  The enthusiastic support and 
technical expertise of the UN significantly improves the 
prospect that the network could prove an important tool in 
the fight against the AIDS pandemic in the region. 
 
 
7.  Action Request:  This is an important initiative for this 
region.  BSEC provides a unique institutional capability to 
bring together the greater Black Sea states to help them 
address what could be a very serious AIDS outbreak in just a 
few years.  We think this initiative is especially important 
for Turkey, which continues to lowball the incidence of AIDS 
cases and ignore the very real threat that AIDS could break 
out here.  We support this initiative and urge Washington to 
do so, as well.  BSEC and the UN recognize the leading role 
of the U.S. in combating the spread of AIDS and they are 
eager for U.S. representatives to show their support for the 
initiative and lend their experience and technical expertise. 
 BSEC would like the U.S. to make a presentation at the 
preliminary meeting of the network in March.  We recommend 
that OES and S/GAC identify a speaker or perhaps a small 
delegation to attend the meeting of experts in March.  Post 
will transmit more details as they become available. 
EDELMAN