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Turkey Decrees Partial Return of Confiscated Christian, Jewish Property
(Update)
Sun, Aug 28 2011
By:Armenian Weekly
ANKARA, Turkey - Turkey's government is returning hundreds of properties
confiscated from the country's Christian and Jewish minorities over
the past 75 years in a gesture to religious groups who complain of
discrimination that is also likely to thwart possible court rulings
against the country, reported the Associated Press (AP).
The Akhtamar Church
A government decree published on Aug. 27 returns assets that once
belonged to Greek, Armenian or Jewish trusts and makes provisions for
the government to pay compensation for any confiscated property that
has since been sold on.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was scheduled to announce the
decision formally later Sunday when he hosts religious leaders and the
heads of about 160 minority trusts, at a fast-breaking dinner for the
holy Muslim month of Ramadan, officials said.
The properties include former hospital, orphanage or school buildings
and cemeteries. Their return is a key European Union demand and a
series of court cases has also been filed against primarily Muslim
Turkey at the European Court of Human Rights. Last year, the court
ordered Turkey to return an orphanage to the Greek Orthodox
Patriarchate.
Some properties were seized when they fell into disuse over the years.
Others were confiscated after 1974 when Turkey ruled that non-Muslim
trusts could not own new property in addition to those that were
already registered in their names in 1936. The 1974 decision came
around the time of a Turkish invasion of Cyprus that followed a coup
attempt by supporters of union with Greece and relations with that
country were at an all time low.
Erdogan's Islamic-rooted government seeking to promote religious
freedoms has pledged to address the problems of the religious
minorities. In the past few years, it amended laws to allow for the
return of some of the properties, but restrictions remained and the
issue on how to resolve properties that were sold on to third parties
was left unsolved.
The decree overcomes those restrictions and helps scupper further court rulings.
`There was huge pressure from the European Court of Human Rights which
has already ruled against Turkey,' said Orhan Kemal Cengiz a human
rights activist and lawyer who specializes in minority issues.
`It is nevertheless a very important development,' he said. `With the
return of properties and the compensations, the minority communities
will be able to strengthen economically and their lives will be made
easier.'
The country's population of 74 million, mostly Muslim, includes an
estimated 65,000 Armenian Orthodox Christians, 23,000 Jews and fewer
than 2,500 Greek Orthodox Christians.
Religious minorities have often complained of discrimination in
Turkey, which had a history of conflict with Greece and with Armenians
who accuse Turkish authorities of trying to exterminate them early in
the last century. Turkey says the mass killings at that time were the
result of the chaos of war, rather than a systematic campaign of
genocide. Few minority members have been able to hold top positions in
politics, the military or the public service.
Turkey is also under intense pressure to reopen a seminary that
trained generations of Greek Orthodox patriarchs. The Halki
Theological School on Heybeliada Island, near Istanbul, was closed to
new students in 1971 under a law that put religious and military
training under state control. The school closed its doors in 1985,
when the last five students graduated.
Pressure from the U.S.
As the Armenian Weekly has reported in recent months, there were more
than 2,000 Armenian churches operating in what is Today Turkey before
the Armenian genocide of 1915. Most of these churches were destroyed
and their properties confiscated. The aforementioned decree does not
include these church properties. It is only limited to properties
confiscated in the past 75 years.
The Erdogan decree coincides with increased U.S. Congressional
scrutiny of Turkey's repression of its Christian minority. Last month,
with a vote of 43-1, the House Foreign Affairs Committee adopted an
amendment to the State Department Authorization bill, spearheaded by
Ranking Democrat Howard Berman (D-Calif.) and Rep. David Cicilline
(D-R.I.), calling for the return of Christian Churches confiscated by
the Turkish government and and end of Turkey's discrimination against
its Christian communities. Armenian National Committee of America
(ANCA) Executive Director Aram Hamparian welcomed that decision,
stating, `Ninety six years after the genocide perpetrated against the
Armenians, Greeks, and Assyrians, the Turkish Government has destroyed
or confiscated the vast majority of their holy sites and places of
worship. The Foreign Affairs Committee today sent a powerful message
to Turkey that it must come to terms with this brutal legacy, respect
religious freedom of surviving Christian communities, and return the
fruits of its crimes.' The passage of the resolution was also hailed
by Greek and Syriac American organizations, including the American
Hellenic Educational and Public Affairs Association (AHEPA), American
Hellenic Institute (AHI), American Hellenic Council (AHC) and the
Syriac Universal Alliance, among many others.
The amendment is similar to a resolution (H.Res.306), introduced in
June by Representatives Ed Royce (R-Calif.) and Howard Berman
(D-Calif.), which has over 35 cosponsors.
Turkey's treatment of its Christian minority has also emerged as an
issue to contention in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
consideration of U.S. Ambassador to Turkey nominee Francis
Ricciardone. In response to questions submitted by Senator Robert
Menendez (D-N.J.), Amb. Ricciardone erroneously asserted that a
majority of Christian churches functioning in 1915 continue to operate
as churches today. A revised response recently submitted to the key
Senate panel continued to misrepresent the number of functioning
churches. Armenian American church leaders issued powerfully worded
spiritual messages in response to the Ambassador's statement. In an
Aug. 15 statement, Archbishop Oshagan Choloyan, Prelate of the
Armenian Apostolic Church of Eastern U.S. stressed that the
Ambassador's initial assertion was `so blatantly false that it cannot
remain unchallenged.' He went on to explain that `the facts are quite
clear. From the massacres of Armenians in 1895-96 and the Armenian
Genocide in 1915, to the decades following the establishment of the
Turkish republic, Christian houses of worship were systematically
destroyed or confiscated. My own church's hierarchal see, the Armenian
Catholicosate of Cilicia, was a victim of this process, and today is
exiled in Lebanon. The archives of the Catholicosate contain hundreds
of original deeds and other documentation of churches and church owned
property that was confiscated.'
The Primate of the Armenian Apostolic Church of Eastern U.S.,
Archbishop Khajag Barsamian stated that Amb. Ricciardone's response
had `deeply offended Armenian-Americans', explaining that `the loss of
these many hundreds of churches, their neglect and outright
destruction, and the conversion of many of our sanctuaries into
mosques, is a matter of intense pain to Armenians: an ongoing reminder
of the loss of life and the destruction that we suffered as a result
of the 1915 Genocide.
(Update)
Sun, Aug 28 2011
By:Armenian Weekly
ANKARA, Turkey - Turkey's government is returning hundreds of properties
confiscated from the country's Christian and Jewish minorities over
the past 75 years in a gesture to religious groups who complain of
discrimination that is also likely to thwart possible court rulings
against the country, reported the Associated Press (AP).
The Akhtamar Church
A government decree published on Aug. 27 returns assets that once
belonged to Greek, Armenian or Jewish trusts and makes provisions for
the government to pay compensation for any confiscated property that
has since been sold on.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was scheduled to announce the
decision formally later Sunday when he hosts religious leaders and the
heads of about 160 minority trusts, at a fast-breaking dinner for the
holy Muslim month of Ramadan, officials said.
The properties include former hospital, orphanage or school buildings
and cemeteries. Their return is a key European Union demand and a
series of court cases has also been filed against primarily Muslim
Turkey at the European Court of Human Rights. Last year, the court
ordered Turkey to return an orphanage to the Greek Orthodox
Patriarchate.
Some properties were seized when they fell into disuse over the years.
Others were confiscated after 1974 when Turkey ruled that non-Muslim
trusts could not own new property in addition to those that were
already registered in their names in 1936. The 1974 decision came
around the time of a Turkish invasion of Cyprus that followed a coup
attempt by supporters of union with Greece and relations with that
country were at an all time low.
Erdogan's Islamic-rooted government seeking to promote religious
freedoms has pledged to address the problems of the religious
minorities. In the past few years, it amended laws to allow for the
return of some of the properties, but restrictions remained and the
issue on how to resolve properties that were sold on to third parties
was left unsolved.
The decree overcomes those restrictions and helps scupper further court rulings.
`There was huge pressure from the European Court of Human Rights which
has already ruled against Turkey,' said Orhan Kemal Cengiz a human
rights activist and lawyer who specializes in minority issues.
`It is nevertheless a very important development,' he said. `With the
return of properties and the compensations, the minority communities
will be able to strengthen economically and their lives will be made
easier.'
The country's population of 74 million, mostly Muslim, includes an
estimated 65,000 Armenian Orthodox Christians, 23,000 Jews and fewer
than 2,500 Greek Orthodox Christians.
Religious minorities have often complained of discrimination in
Turkey, which had a history of conflict with Greece and with Armenians
who accuse Turkish authorities of trying to exterminate them early in
the last century. Turkey says the mass killings at that time were the
result of the chaos of war, rather than a systematic campaign of
genocide. Few minority members have been able to hold top positions in
politics, the military or the public service.
Turkey is also under intense pressure to reopen a seminary that
trained generations of Greek Orthodox patriarchs. The Halki
Theological School on Heybeliada Island, near Istanbul, was closed to
new students in 1971 under a law that put religious and military
training under state control. The school closed its doors in 1985,
when the last five students graduated.
Pressure from the U.S.
As the Armenian Weekly has reported in recent months, there were more
than 2,000 Armenian churches operating in what is Today Turkey before
the Armenian genocide of 1915. Most of these churches were destroyed
and their properties confiscated. The aforementioned decree does not
include these church properties. It is only limited to properties
confiscated in the past 75 years.
The Erdogan decree coincides with increased U.S. Congressional
scrutiny of Turkey's repression of its Christian minority. Last month,
with a vote of 43-1, the House Foreign Affairs Committee adopted an
amendment to the State Department Authorization bill, spearheaded by
Ranking Democrat Howard Berman (D-Calif.) and Rep. David Cicilline
(D-R.I.), calling for the return of Christian Churches confiscated by
the Turkish government and and end of Turkey's discrimination against
its Christian communities. Armenian National Committee of America
(ANCA) Executive Director Aram Hamparian welcomed that decision,
stating, `Ninety six years after the genocide perpetrated against the
Armenians, Greeks, and Assyrians, the Turkish Government has destroyed
or confiscated the vast majority of their holy sites and places of
worship. The Foreign Affairs Committee today sent a powerful message
to Turkey that it must come to terms with this brutal legacy, respect
religious freedom of surviving Christian communities, and return the
fruits of its crimes.' The passage of the resolution was also hailed
by Greek and Syriac American organizations, including the American
Hellenic Educational and Public Affairs Association (AHEPA), American
Hellenic Institute (AHI), American Hellenic Council (AHC) and the
Syriac Universal Alliance, among many others.
The amendment is similar to a resolution (H.Res.306), introduced in
June by Representatives Ed Royce (R-Calif.) and Howard Berman
(D-Calif.), which has over 35 cosponsors.
Turkey's treatment of its Christian minority has also emerged as an
issue to contention in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
consideration of U.S. Ambassador to Turkey nominee Francis
Ricciardone. In response to questions submitted by Senator Robert
Menendez (D-N.J.), Amb. Ricciardone erroneously asserted that a
majority of Christian churches functioning in 1915 continue to operate
as churches today. A revised response recently submitted to the key
Senate panel continued to misrepresent the number of functioning
churches. Armenian American church leaders issued powerfully worded
spiritual messages in response to the Ambassador's statement. In an
Aug. 15 statement, Archbishop Oshagan Choloyan, Prelate of the
Armenian Apostolic Church of Eastern U.S. stressed that the
Ambassador's initial assertion was `so blatantly false that it cannot
remain unchallenged.' He went on to explain that `the facts are quite
clear. From the massacres of Armenians in 1895-96 and the Armenian
Genocide in 1915, to the decades following the establishment of the
Turkish republic, Christian houses of worship were systematically
destroyed or confiscated. My own church's hierarchal see, the Armenian
Catholicosate of Cilicia, was a victim of this process, and today is
exiled in Lebanon. The archives of the Catholicosate contain hundreds
of original deeds and other documentation of churches and church owned
property that was confiscated.'
The Primate of the Armenian Apostolic Church of Eastern U.S.,
Archbishop Khajag Barsamian stated that Amb. Ricciardone's response
had `deeply offended Armenian-Americans', explaining that `the loss of
these many hundreds of churches, their neglect and outright
destruction, and the conversion of many of our sanctuaries into
mosques, is a matter of intense pain to Armenians: an ongoing reminder
of the loss of life and the destruction that we suffered as a result
of the 1915 Genocide.