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PATRIARCHATE APPLIES FOR RETURN OF 'DARK' BUILDING
Hurriyet Daily News
Jan 12 2012
Turkey
An Istanbul court imposes an interim injunction on a historical
Armenian building, although the property was not registered on the
1936 declaration. Used as police headquarters in 40's ,Sansaryan Han
isalso known to be a symbol of torture
The Turkish-Armenian Patriarchate has filed a lawsuit in an
unprecedented move to retrieve a historical Armenian building in
Istanbul, the Sansaryan Han, despite the fact the building had not
been registered on the 1936 declaration.
"Newly passed foundation laws gave us the opportunity to file this
suit. The Patriarchate knew it owned the foundation. All that remained
was to officially declare this," Simon İş, the lawyer representing
the Patriarchate in court, told the Hurriyet Daily News.
The court ruled to impose an interim injunction on the building located
in Istanbul's Eminonu district. Among the foundation properties owned
by the shopping center is the Sansaryan School in the northeastern
province of Erzurum, where Turkey's founder Ataturk had assembled
the Erzurum Congress of 1919.
"We are awaiting the return of the building, and we remain hopeful,"
said İş, although he chose not to comment on whether another initiative
might be undertaken to retrieve the building in Erzurum as well.
The Turkish government enacted a measure effective Aug. 27, 2011,
to return properties seized from minority foundations through a
proclamation that was declared in 1936. Minority groups gave the
government a proclamation in 1936 detailing their realty properties.
Over the years, however, these properties were not registered under the
minority foundations' names and some were even sold to third parties.
"The Turkish-Armenian Patriarchate filed a suit in 1930 and received
confirmation that the Sansaryan Foundation belonged to them. Later,
however, the foundation unlawfully slid out of the Patriarchate's
control. It was first used as the Istanbul Police Headquarters and
then the Istanbul Commercial Court until this year," İş said.
Sansaryan Han was refashioned into the Istanbul Police Headquarters
in 1944 and eventually gained notoriety as a bastion of ill-treatment
by the police, as many people, including a number of prominent poets
and writers, were tortured there.
It took years of painstaking research to attain the documents presented
to court, İş said.
İş said they had conducted research in the Turkish Land Registry
Directorate (TKM) for a long time and translated the documents in
question from Ottoman to contemporary Turkish. The conclusions
emanating from this research confirm the claims raised by the
Patriarchate, he said.
"We presented to [judicial authorities] historical documents, as
well as documents pertaining to the court that ruled in favor of the
Patriarchate in 1930, along with all these other files," İş said,
adding that the court's decision to impose an interim injunction over
the building was appropriate.
From: Baghdasarian
Hurriyet Daily News
Jan 12 2012
Turkey
An Istanbul court imposes an interim injunction on a historical
Armenian building, although the property was not registered on the
1936 declaration. Used as police headquarters in 40's ,Sansaryan Han
isalso known to be a symbol of torture
The Turkish-Armenian Patriarchate has filed a lawsuit in an
unprecedented move to retrieve a historical Armenian building in
Istanbul, the Sansaryan Han, despite the fact the building had not
been registered on the 1936 declaration.
"Newly passed foundation laws gave us the opportunity to file this
suit. The Patriarchate knew it owned the foundation. All that remained
was to officially declare this," Simon İş, the lawyer representing
the Patriarchate in court, told the Hurriyet Daily News.
The court ruled to impose an interim injunction on the building located
in Istanbul's Eminonu district. Among the foundation properties owned
by the shopping center is the Sansaryan School in the northeastern
province of Erzurum, where Turkey's founder Ataturk had assembled
the Erzurum Congress of 1919.
"We are awaiting the return of the building, and we remain hopeful,"
said İş, although he chose not to comment on whether another initiative
might be undertaken to retrieve the building in Erzurum as well.
The Turkish government enacted a measure effective Aug. 27, 2011,
to return properties seized from minority foundations through a
proclamation that was declared in 1936. Minority groups gave the
government a proclamation in 1936 detailing their realty properties.
Over the years, however, these properties were not registered under the
minority foundations' names and some were even sold to third parties.
"The Turkish-Armenian Patriarchate filed a suit in 1930 and received
confirmation that the Sansaryan Foundation belonged to them. Later,
however, the foundation unlawfully slid out of the Patriarchate's
control. It was first used as the Istanbul Police Headquarters and
then the Istanbul Commercial Court until this year," İş said.
Sansaryan Han was refashioned into the Istanbul Police Headquarters
in 1944 and eventually gained notoriety as a bastion of ill-treatment
by the police, as many people, including a number of prominent poets
and writers, were tortured there.
It took years of painstaking research to attain the documents presented
to court, İş said.
İş said they had conducted research in the Turkish Land Registry
Directorate (TKM) for a long time and translated the documents in
question from Ottoman to contemporary Turkish. The conclusions
emanating from this research confirm the claims raised by the
Patriarchate, he said.
"We presented to [judicial authorities] historical documents, as
well as documents pertaining to the court that ruled in favor of the
Patriarchate in 1930, along with all these other files," İş said,
adding that the court's decision to impose an interim injunction over
the building was appropriate.
From: Baghdasarian