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Turkey to return confiscated property
Associated Press
Published Sunday, Aug. 28, 2011
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.
A government decree published Saturday 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.
Turkey to return confiscated property
Associated Press
Published Sunday, Aug. 28, 2011
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.
A government decree published Saturday 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.