US embassy cable - 05ANKARA5342

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 
-------------------------- 
 
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 
------------------------- 
 
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