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URBAN RENEWAL TO COMPLICATE RETURN OF MINORITY PROPERTIES
Today's Zaman, Turkey
July 19 2013
Historical Armenian houses in the Kale neighborhood of MuÅ~_ are being
demolished by the state as part of an urban renewal project. (Photo:
Ä°HA)
19 July 2013 /Ä°PEK UZUM, Ä°STANBUL
Minority communities seeking to reclaim their confiscated properties
are concerned over a recent urban renewal project, a nationwide
government scheme to reinforce buildings against earthquakes, stating
that the new project will make the process of returning the properties
of minorities more complicated.
As the government is intensifying efforts to complete a giant urban
renewal project across the country as soon as possible, minorities, who
have already experienced many bureaucratic and procedural difficulties
in their struggles to reclaim their properties that were confiscated
by the state in the early years of the Turkish Republic, fear that
urban renewal will further complicate the process.
Real Estate Law Association President Ali Guvenc Kiraz, who spoke to
Today's Zaman, warned that thousands of title deed certificates will
be reorganized during the urban renewal process, adding that access
to registries of deeds will be much more difficult as plots of land
will be divided and their ownerships given to other parties.
In 2011 the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) adopted
an amendment to make it possible to return property belonging to
religious minorities that had been seized by the state decades
earlier. The amendment, adopted on Aug. 27, 2011, added a temporary
Article 11 to Turkey's Law on Foundations No. 5737, stipulating
the return of property seized from minorities. The foundations
were given a year to file applications. Despite this amendment,
minorities still have difficulties reclaiming their properties as
the amendment only encompasses the properties of minority foundations
and not those of individuals. Furthermore, the amendment places the
onus of proving ownerships on the foundations but the foundations
have been experiencing problems as their properties were defined
using vague expressions such as "the house next to Kirkor's house"
in Ottoman-era records. The state doesn't accept the records including
these expressions as valid.
Garo Paylan, an activist working for an Armenian civil society
organization, told Today's Zaman that the state is demolishing
minorities' properties and houses under the public renewal project,
pointing to the demolition of Kale neighborhood in MuÅ~_ province as
an example. Paylan said historic Armenian houses in Kale in MuÅ~_
are being demolished and replaced with modern houses built by the
Housing Development Administration of Turkey (TOKÄ°) as part of the
urban renewal project. "Because the houses were known to have belonged
to Armenians, the state's Cultural and Natural Heritage Preservation
Board neglected to register these houses as a cultural heritage.
History is being demolished in MuÅ~_ currently," Paylan said.
The Armenian Kale neighborhood was declared an urban renewal site in
a Cabinet decision on Oct. 21, 2012. TOKÄ° and the MuÅ~_ Municipality
signed a protocol for urban transformation projects in the neighborhood
on July 2 under which TOKÄ° will build apartments on 11 hectares of
land in the neighborhood.
Speaking to Today's Zaman, Turkish-Armenian journalist Hayko Bagdat
harshly criticized the urban renewal project in MuÅ~_, stating:
"The state seized the properties with a racist motivation over the
past decades. Now, minorities face many difficulties try to reclaim
what used to belong to them. The state should adopt the necessary
regulations to return all the properties of minorities. The demolition
of Armenian houses in MuÅ~_ because they are not under protection is
an insult to the history of mankind. Armenians are also part of this
country. Their culture heritage should also be preserved by the state.
We should defend our cultural heritage together."
"For instance Akdamar Church [on the island of Akdamar on Lake Van]
belongs to us [Armenians] but we have to apply for special permission
from the state to hold a religious ceremony in the church. This is
nonsensical. Adopting a regulation to resolve such problems is not
very difficult. It can be done very easily but nothing will happen
until the state's mentality changes," he added.
The confiscation of properties of minority foundations dates back to
the early days of the Turkish Republic. The 1936 Law on Foundations,
known as the 1936 Declaration, ordered all foundations to submit a
property declaration listing immovable and other properties owned by
each and every foundation. Following the death of the nation's founder
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, those property declarations were forgotten.
When the Cyprus problem escalated in the 1970s, the General
Directorate of Foundations asked non-Muslim foundations to resubmit
their regulations. Yet those foundations did not have such regulations
because of a practice during the Ottoman Empire where such foundations
could only be established by individual decrees of the sultan of the
day. After receiving a negative response from these foundations, the
General Directorate of Foundations made a ruling that the declarations
of 1936 would be considered their regulation. Unless these declarations
did not carry a special provision entitling the foundation to acquire
immovable property, the General Directorate expropriated all immovable
property acquired after 1936.These expropriation acts were in violation
of both the Lausanne agreement and property rights.
http://www.todayszaman.com/news-321338-urban-renewal-to-complicate-return-of-minority-properties.html
Today's Zaman, Turkey
July 19 2013
Historical Armenian houses in the Kale neighborhood of MuÅ~_ are being
demolished by the state as part of an urban renewal project. (Photo:
Ä°HA)
19 July 2013 /Ä°PEK UZUM, Ä°STANBUL
Minority communities seeking to reclaim their confiscated properties
are concerned over a recent urban renewal project, a nationwide
government scheme to reinforce buildings against earthquakes, stating
that the new project will make the process of returning the properties
of minorities more complicated.
As the government is intensifying efforts to complete a giant urban
renewal project across the country as soon as possible, minorities, who
have already experienced many bureaucratic and procedural difficulties
in their struggles to reclaim their properties that were confiscated
by the state in the early years of the Turkish Republic, fear that
urban renewal will further complicate the process.
Real Estate Law Association President Ali Guvenc Kiraz, who spoke to
Today's Zaman, warned that thousands of title deed certificates will
be reorganized during the urban renewal process, adding that access
to registries of deeds will be much more difficult as plots of land
will be divided and their ownerships given to other parties.
In 2011 the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) adopted
an amendment to make it possible to return property belonging to
religious minorities that had been seized by the state decades
earlier. The amendment, adopted on Aug. 27, 2011, added a temporary
Article 11 to Turkey's Law on Foundations No. 5737, stipulating
the return of property seized from minorities. The foundations
were given a year to file applications. Despite this amendment,
minorities still have difficulties reclaiming their properties as
the amendment only encompasses the properties of minority foundations
and not those of individuals. Furthermore, the amendment places the
onus of proving ownerships on the foundations but the foundations
have been experiencing problems as their properties were defined
using vague expressions such as "the house next to Kirkor's house"
in Ottoman-era records. The state doesn't accept the records including
these expressions as valid.
Garo Paylan, an activist working for an Armenian civil society
organization, told Today's Zaman that the state is demolishing
minorities' properties and houses under the public renewal project,
pointing to the demolition of Kale neighborhood in MuÅ~_ province as
an example. Paylan said historic Armenian houses in Kale in MuÅ~_
are being demolished and replaced with modern houses built by the
Housing Development Administration of Turkey (TOKÄ°) as part of the
urban renewal project. "Because the houses were known to have belonged
to Armenians, the state's Cultural and Natural Heritage Preservation
Board neglected to register these houses as a cultural heritage.
History is being demolished in MuÅ~_ currently," Paylan said.
The Armenian Kale neighborhood was declared an urban renewal site in
a Cabinet decision on Oct. 21, 2012. TOKÄ° and the MuÅ~_ Municipality
signed a protocol for urban transformation projects in the neighborhood
on July 2 under which TOKÄ° will build apartments on 11 hectares of
land in the neighborhood.
Speaking to Today's Zaman, Turkish-Armenian journalist Hayko Bagdat
harshly criticized the urban renewal project in MuÅ~_, stating:
"The state seized the properties with a racist motivation over the
past decades. Now, minorities face many difficulties try to reclaim
what used to belong to them. The state should adopt the necessary
regulations to return all the properties of minorities. The demolition
of Armenian houses in MuÅ~_ because they are not under protection is
an insult to the history of mankind. Armenians are also part of this
country. Their culture heritage should also be preserved by the state.
We should defend our cultural heritage together."
"For instance Akdamar Church [on the island of Akdamar on Lake Van]
belongs to us [Armenians] but we have to apply for special permission
from the state to hold a religious ceremony in the church. This is
nonsensical. Adopting a regulation to resolve such problems is not
very difficult. It can be done very easily but nothing will happen
until the state's mentality changes," he added.
The confiscation of properties of minority foundations dates back to
the early days of the Turkish Republic. The 1936 Law on Foundations,
known as the 1936 Declaration, ordered all foundations to submit a
property declaration listing immovable and other properties owned by
each and every foundation. Following the death of the nation's founder
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, those property declarations were forgotten.
When the Cyprus problem escalated in the 1970s, the General
Directorate of Foundations asked non-Muslim foundations to resubmit
their regulations. Yet those foundations did not have such regulations
because of a practice during the Ottoman Empire where such foundations
could only be established by individual decrees of the sultan of the
day. After receiving a negative response from these foundations, the
General Directorate of Foundations made a ruling that the declarations
of 1936 would be considered their regulation. Unless these declarations
did not carry a special provision entitling the foundation to acquire
immovable property, the General Directorate expropriated all immovable
property acquired after 1936.These expropriation acts were in violation
of both the Lausanne agreement and property rights.
http://www.todayszaman.com/news-321338-urban-renewal-to-complicate-return-of-minority-properties.html