Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Non-Muslim Foundations In Turkey To Get Back Only 16 Percent Of Seiz

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Non-Muslim Foundations In Turkey To Get Back Only 16 Percent Of Seiz

    NON-MUSLIM FOUNDATIONS IN TURKEY TO GET BACK ONLY 16 PERCENT OF SEIZED PROPERTY

    18:43 24.07.2013

    Representatives from non-Muslim foundations have announced that
    they have received a positive response for only 16 percent of the
    applications they made for the return of their property seized by
    the state, Today's Zaman reports quoting Taraf daily.

    Recent remarks by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, saying his
    government has returned property that valued at $2.5 billion to
    non-Muslims, has brought the issue of property seized from Turkey's
    minorities back on the nation's agenda.

    In 2011, Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party)
    government adopted a decree to return all confiscated immovable
    property belonging to minority foundations in Turkey.

    According to the decree, minority foundations are able to reclaim real
    property they had declared back in 1936. All real property, cemeteries
    and fountains will be returned to their rightful owners. Immovable
    property currently belonging to third parties will also be paid for.

    The 1936 Law on Foundations aimed to control non-Muslim foundations
    by placing them under the guardianship of the Directorate General
    for Foundations (VGM).

    Since 2011, non-Muslim foundations have applied to the VGM demanding
    the return of 542 properties. However, they have been unable to get
    back most of their seized property over the past two years.

    In remarks to Taraf, Laki Vingas, head of the Minorities Foundation,
    explained: "One hundred and sixteen minority foundations have applied
    for the return of 542 properties, but only 253 properties have been
    returned. Applications for the return of 829 seized properties were
    rejected. No assessment has been made about the situation of 460
    properties. With regard to 18 properties, which were acquired by
    third persons, a decision was made for compensation to be paid,"
    adding that only 16 percent of the applications have been responded
    to in the affirmative.

    According to Vingas, the process concerning the return of seized
    property of non-Muslims will be concluded within three months and
    the rate of the return will remain at 25 percent at most.

    With regard to the rejected applications, Vingas said rejections
    mostly happen due to missing documents and failure to determine the
    exact location of the property, adding that some minority foundations
    have taken legal action concerning their rejected applications.

    Å~^ahin Gezer, a member of the real estate commission of the Turkish
    Armenian Patriarchate, told the daily that he finds the figure cited
    by Erdogan exaggerated, adding that if all the seized property of
    non-Muslim foundations had been returned, it would be about $2.5
    billion.

    Voicing his disapproval of the slow progress in the return of seized
    property, Gezer said: "The process is running very slowly. The state
    knows it better than us what place was ours and what was not. We need
    to take back the documents from the state which the state wants from
    us. But, we cannot get these documents from many institutions. What
    we want is covered-up documents at the end of the day. When we cannot
    get these documents, our applications are rejected and we cannot
    prove that that property was ours."

    The Diyarbakır Surp Giragos Armenian Church Foundation is another
    non-Muslim foundation most of whose applications for the return of
    seized property were rejected.

    Foundation head Vartkes Ergun Ayık told Taraf that they applied for
    the return of 190 properties to the foundation but that only 17 have
    been given back to them.

    http://www.armradio.am/en/2013/07/24/non-muslim-foundations-in-turkey-to-get-back-only-16-percent-of-seized-property/

Working...
X