Web Portal on Human Rights in Georgia

“On December 20, we left Trabzon at four in the morning. A man about forty took our documents when we drove off with him. We did not resist him, and we arrived in Istanbul that night. Only the driver had accompanied us from Trabzon. He only spoke Turkish and did not stop the car at all on the way to Istanbul. We were not well. Thea was sitting next to him, and the rest of us, five in all, were sitting in the back seat. I recall that the driver turned off the main highway on our way to Istanbul. We asked him where he was taking us, but he did not say anything until we reached an unknown located. There, having become fed up with our complaining, the Turk stopped the car and ordered us to get out. But, there were only mountains around, so where could we go? …”

We reached the Greek city of Alexandroupoli after a 27-day trip through the rain and snow. Before that, we had been sold twice in Trabzon and Istanbul by Georgians. We, girls of ages 20 to 30, were forced to provide sexual favors to 60-year-old Turkish men. ….The most terrible [part of the trip] was the distance between Istanbul and the Greek border -- woods, rocks, narrow paths, lakes, and intolerable cold. Two young women froze to death in the Turkish woods, and we buried them at that place. One of us fell into the ravine…”