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Viewing cable 08ANKARA610, TURKEY: COMPREHENSIVE EU ANTI-TIP PROJECT LAUNCHED

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
08ANKARA610 2008-04-01 13:08 2011-08-24 01:00 UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Embassy Ankara
VZCZCXRO0071
RR RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHDA RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHLN
RUEHLZ RUEHPOD RUEHROV RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHAK #0610/01 0921308
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 011308Z APR 08
FM AMEMBASSY ANKARA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 5762
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUEAHLC/HOMELAND SECURITY CENTER WASHDC
RUEAWJA/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHDC
RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHDC
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ANKARA 000610 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR G/TIP, EUR/SE, EUR/PGI; DEPT FOR USAID 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KCRM PHUM KWMN SMIG KFRD ASEC PREF ELAB TU
SUBJECT: TURKEY: COMPREHENSIVE EU ANTI-TIP PROJECT LAUNCHED 
 
1.  (U) In a standing room-only ceremony March 19, Turkish 
Ministry of Interior (MOI) Deputy Under Secretary Alim Barum, 
IOM Chief of Mission Maurizio Busatti, and European 
Commission Delegation Institution Building and Civil Society 
Section Head Michael Vogel inaugurated a two-year, three 
million euro comprehensive anti-TIP project, "Supporting 
Turkey's Efforts to Combat Human Trafficking and Promote 
Access to Justice for all Trafficked Persons."  The EU-funded 
project -- a follow-up to the EU-Turkey Twinning Project, 
"Strengthening Institutions in the Fight Against TIP" -- will 
be implemented in cooperation with IOM Turkey and aims to 
comprehensively support Turkish institutions in their fight 
against TIP, primarily by expanding victim protection in line 
with EU council directives and harmonization with the EU 
acquis.  (A project overview will be e-mailed separately to 
G/TIP.) 
 
2.  (U) The project's implementation began December 1, 2007. 
It will build on the already strong NGO and interagency 
cooperation Turkey enjoys on TIP, and the impending adoption 
of Turkey's new national action plan.  The project has six 
objectives: 
 
-- Strengthening the national taskforce's administrative 
capacity in order to make communication and cooperation among 
members more efficient; 
-- Conducting prevention and awareness raising activities in 
Turkey and source countries to reduce the stigma associated 
with TIP and to promote the 157 helpline; 
-- Increasing victim identification, and strengthening the 
investigation and prosecution of traffickers; 
-- Improving victim protection in Turkey by strengthening the 
existing infrastructure and developing new mechanisms; 
-- Improving understanding of the demand for different forms 
of TIP, including forced prostitution, and the development of 
measures to counteract demand; 
-- Establishing a data gathering network to promote a 
coordinated approach to TIP between Turkey and the main 
source countries. 
 
3.  (U) Within these objectives, the project coordinators are 
targeting an ambitious set of key deliverables: 
 
-- Sustained funding for the "157" helpline and the Ankara 
and Istanbul TIP shelters; 
-- A national and multi-country TIP information campaign and 
"157" helpline promotion; 
-- "Train the trainer" course for thirty MOI and Ministry of 
Justice (MOJ) officials on victim identification and 
interviewing techniques; 
-- TIP training for 280 "first contact" law enforcement 
officers; 
-- Year-long Russian and English language training for fifty 
law enforcement officers plus additional certified 
translators for TIP "hotspots;" 
-- Enhanced cooperation with municipal bar associations 
(public defenders); 
-- Regional and European study trips and workshops; 
-- Improved MOJ data collection and enhanced regional data 
sharing; 
-- Turkish Penal Code Article 80 (newly amended 
anti-trafficking article) curriculum; 
-- "Train the trainer" TIP workshops for forty judges and 
prosecutors who will subsequently train over 1,500 judges and 
prosecutors; 
-- Two mutual legal assistance seminars between Turkey and 
source country officials; and 
-- Baseline survey on trafficking demand in Turkey. 
 
4.  (SBU) The GOT's adoption of the new National Action Plan 
(NAP) will be key to the project's success, Project Manager 
Helen Nilsson told us March 31.  Currently, the NAP is 
awaiting Prime Ministry approval and translation into 
English.  The NAP has been delayed by months now, and there 
are concerns that political upheavals in Turkey could further 
slow its adoption.  Nilsson, who has been seconded by the 
Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) 
to oversee the project's implementation, stressed, however, 
that the project coordinators are nonetheless pushing 
forward.  Veteran Scotland Yard detective and renowned 
international TIP expert Paul Holmes is in Turkey April 1-2 
to participate in "train the trainers" exercises for law 
enforcement officers.  A feasibility study will soon be 
launched to help identify ways in which to improve the 
effectiveness of the TIP national taskforce and the 
coordinator's role.  The taskforce already represents a wide 
 
ANKARA 00000610  002 OF 002 
 
 
cross-section of national and local government, IGOs and 
NGOs, and is meeting every other month.  Nilsson predicted 
that the feasibility study will advise the coordinator to 
break-up the taskforce into smaller, more operable working 
groups to address key issues. 
 
5.  (SBU) Nilsson emphasized the importance of the awareness 
campaigns scheduled to begin nationally in May 2008 and 
regionally in 2009.  A top Istanbul-based advertising firm is 
developing a high-quality TV, radio and poster campaign. 
Expanding the campaign regionally will have the benefit of 
more effectively communicating to potential victims and their 
families in source countries the risks of trafficking and the 
services available to victims if they are trafficked to 
Turkey.  The 157 helpline is already accessible 
internationally and the regional awareness campaign will 
convey this more widely.  The GOT, according to Nilsson and 
Turkish National Police (TNP) contacts, is already in the 
process of transitioning operational responsibility for the 
helpline from IOM to TNP; funding has been authorized and an 
applicants' questionnaire is being developed.  Nilsson also 
noted that both police and Jandarma (Gendarmerie) have shown 
great enthusiasm for the Russian and English language 
training.  The capacity for Turkish authorities to address 
potential victims in a language they can understand will go a 
long way toward easing victims' fear and could lead to better 
cooperation between victims and Turkish law enforcement and 
judicial authorities. 
 
6.  (SBU) The EU project will aim to bolster the Turkish 
judiciary's capacity to fight TIP.  Some source country 
officials visiting Turkey have noted that judicial 
cooperation with Turkish officials does not always transpire 
as efficiently and effectively as it could.  Two mutual legal 
assistance seminars with source country officials will be 
held, each involving thirty Turkish and foreign participants. 
 Study visits for Turkish officials to EU and source 
countries will also take place.  Moreover, the project 
coordinators will oversee the training of forty judicial 
trainers and the subsequent training of 1,500 judges and 
prosecutors on the recently-amended Article 80 criminalizing 
TIP with eight to twelve years' imprisonment.  In addition, a 
separate Dutch and SIDA-funded project aimed at improving the 
local bar associations' capacities to deliver, sensitively, 
legal services to TIP victims is already underway. 
 
COMMENT:  TAKING TURKEY TO THE NEXT LEVEL 
----------------------------------------- 
 
7.  (SBU) Our EU contacts maintain that Turkish interagency, 
NGO and IGO cooperation on TIP is strong, exceeding that on 
other issues in the Justice and Home Affairs chapter (chapter 
24) of the EU acquis.  While sometimes vacillating on other 
key EU political and economic reforms, the GOT has reached a 
rare consensus on the importance of TIP and is proving a 
willing and able partner and a regional leader.  The EU 
project has excellent potential for success:  it builds on 
Turkey's strengths and comprehensively addresses remaining 
weaknesses, ensuring sustainable and self-supporting victim 
protection mechanisms.  This ambitious project will be a big 
part of Turkey's anti-TIP performance over the next three 
years and we will monitor its implementation closely. 
 
Visit Ankara's Classified Web Site at 
http://www.intelink.sgov.gov/wiki/Portal:Turk ey 
 
WILSON