CHILDREN-TURKEY: Sexual Abuse, Child Prostitution Increasing Rapidly

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Nadire Mater

ISTANBUL, Jul 7 2000 (IPS) - Turkey says it is aiming to become the 10th largest economy in the world within the next quarter century, but two reports recently released here suggests that the country turn its attention to its growing social problems instead.

Take sexual abuse of minors for example. One report out says there are 500 child sex workers on the streets of Istanbul alone. Many of these children come from abusive homes, some have been abandoned, others ran away from home and still others were spirited off and forced into the sex industry.

“I have been living on the streets for 10 years,” says A. R. A, an Istanbul boy. “I left home because of my father’s behaviour. I was always hungry, I was arrested many times, I was tortured, I was sexually harassed … I wish my friends would not face the same.”

According to a joint study by social workers Polat Deveci and Hidir Yildiz with Dr. Didem Baskin of Istanbul’s Sisli Infantile Hospital, 158 children between ages two and 14 were seen at the hospital between 1987 and 1999, victims of sexual abuse. Most of the patients were victims of rape and sodomy.

One hundred and one of these victims were young boys and 57 were girls.

These children have an added burden to bear. Once their abuse has been confirmed they are often abandoned by their family for fear of soiling the family name.

“Sexually harassed children are either rejected by their families or their sufferings are hidden from the public,” observes Baskin. “And children who lack protection after the incident continue to be abused.”

Boys who are mentally retarded, living or working on the streets are “forcible victims of sodomy”, she says.

According to researchers, official forensic records are generally incomplete and light on details. “The reports generally lack victims’ testimonies, descriptions of the children’s general situation, and the infection data,” researchers say. “Evidence generally excludes sperm samples obtained from the victims and their clothes.”

Ayse Gulsen, a member of a child abuse monitoring team from Infantile Hospital of Izmir and a social worker, is of the opinion that the “official records reflect only the tip of the iceberg”.

Many child victims of sexual violence are not taken to hospital, “and even when they are taken, due to lack of specialisation on such cases, the real causes of injuries or depression might remain ignored”, she told IPS.

“Since they are not in full control of their bodies, the children are inclined to believe that they are nicely treated unless the aggressors do not go to the very end, therefore diagnosis limited to the children’s own complaints are another source of ignorance,” she observes.

Gulsen also points to the fact that because victims invariably do not receive any kind of psychological treatment, they often become abusers themselves. “In most cases we find out that the aggressors were themselves former victims of sexual abuse during childhood.”

A second study by Prof. Esin Kuntay and Assistant Prof. Guliz Erginsoy of Istanbul’s Marmara University sheds more light on the link between sexual abuse of children and child prostitution.

Conducted among 30 of 500 recorded child sex-workers in Istanbul, the research reveals that 19 of those interviewed had had their first sexual experience between 10 and 17 years.

Almost all of the 30 child sex-workers had faced sexual, physical or emotional abuse at home. Forty-three percent of the girls said that they had been sexually, physically or emotionally abused and another 20 percent testified that they had faced sexual and emotional abuse.

“Rehabilitation centres for the victims are necessary and inevitable if we would avoid the disastrous situation seen in other parts of the world,” says Prof. Kuntay. “Social workers, would go between the children and their families to help mend their lives.”

Yet, according to the research, the child sex-workers are generally siblings coming from divorced or separated parents. Only 23 percent of the girls’ parents are living together.

Social worker Abdullah Karatay of Istanbul’s Beyoglu Children’s Centre points to the fact that the increased incidence of child abuse is related to the growing migration to the city. Children working on the streets are, for the most part, coming from families who have recently moved to Istanbul from east or south-east Turkey.

“Children working on the streets are threatened with all sorts of violence, including sexual violence. Because of circumstances they are forced to work out on the streets, to live on the streets where they are mistreated by adults and the police,” he told IPS. “Seventy percent of the children working on the streets testify that they are harassed by the police.”

“Children are the targets of adult anger. The adults are victims of economic and social difficulties,” Gulsen observes. “Children, however, bear the brunt of the violence in the Turkish society,” she told IPS. “There is no immediate way out unless a thorough change sweeps the country.”