Prostitution in Turkey is legal and regulated.

Legal Situation

Women need to be registered and acquire an ID card stating the dates of their health checks. It is mandatory for registered prostitutes to undergo regular health checks for sexually transmitted diseases. The police are allowed to check the authenticity of registered prostitutes to determine whether they have been examined properly and to ensure they see the health authorities if they don't.

Men cannot register under this regulation.

Most sex workers, however, are unregistered, as local governments have made it policy not to issue new registrations. As a result most sex workers in Turkey are not registered.

In 2008, activists and sex workers in Turkey announced they were working on a project to establish Turkey’s first sex workers union.

On 17 February 2001 Matild Manukyan the queen of Turkish brothels and one of the country’s wealthiest women in Turkey died. She built a chain of 32 brothels.

Prostitute population

Ankara Chamber of Commerce (ATO) report(2004)

Item	census data
The number of prostitutes	100,000
prostitutes are registered in 56 brothels operating	3,000
prostitutes registered with the police	15,000
women waiting to get licenses	30,000
age of prostitution	between 15 and 40
annual turnover	$3–4 billion

Human trafficking

Turkey is a top destination for victims of human trafficking, according to a report produced by the UNDOC.

Source countries for identified victims of trafficking in 2008 included Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Moldova, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Romania, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Indonesia, and Morocco.

References

1. Turkey
2. Turkey's sex trade entraps Slavic women - International Herald Tribune
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4. [2]