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www.worldbulletin.net, Turkey
July 20 2013
Urban renewal further complicates return of properties to minorities
Minorities 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.
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 Güvenç 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.
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.
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 BaÄ?dat
harshly criticized the urban renewal projects in MuÅ?.
`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 Atatürk, 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.worldbulletin.net/?aType=haber&ArticleID=113508
From: A. Papazian
July 20 2013
Urban renewal further complicates return of properties to minorities
Minorities 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.
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 Güvenç 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.
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.
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 BaÄ?dat
harshly criticized the urban renewal projects in MuÅ?.
`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 Atatürk, 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.worldbulletin.net/?aType=haber&ArticleID=113508
From: A. Papazian