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TURKEY RETURNING LAND TO SYRIAC MONASTERY
October 8, 2013 - 16:11 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net - Turkey is returning a 12-acre parcel of land
that belongs to a Syriac monastery which was seized from Mardin's
Syriac community in 2005 by the Treasury, a move that came after the
government launched landmark reforms as part of a democratization
package in a bid to extend the democratic rights of certain social
and religious groups, Today's Zaman reports.
Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arınc said on Monday, Oct 7, that the
Directorate General for Foundations (VGM) had agreed to return the
land that belongs to the Mor Gabriel Monastery, ending an extended
saga over the property rights of the Syriac community regarding the
monastery and its surrounding area.
Last year, Turkey's Aramean (Syriac) community was disappointed
by a Supreme Court of Appeals rejection of a plea to overturn an
earlier judgment that gave the land of the Mor Gabriel Monastery to
the Treasury.
The conflict over Mor Gabriel began when land officials for the
Turkish government redrew the boundaries around the monastery and
surrounding villages in 2008 in order to update the national land
registry as part of a cadastre modernization project in compliance
with European Union instructions.
The officials finished this work across nearly half the country in less
than five years. In addition, several new laws have been passed that
require the transfer of uncultivated land to the Treasury and, in some
cases, that re-zone other land, such as forest land, transferring it
to the jurisdiction of the Forestry Directorate.
http://www.panarmenian.net/eng/news/170981/
October 8, 2013 - 16:11 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net - Turkey is returning a 12-acre parcel of land
that belongs to a Syriac monastery which was seized from Mardin's
Syriac community in 2005 by the Treasury, a move that came after the
government launched landmark reforms as part of a democratization
package in a bid to extend the democratic rights of certain social
and religious groups, Today's Zaman reports.
Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arınc said on Monday, Oct 7, that the
Directorate General for Foundations (VGM) had agreed to return the
land that belongs to the Mor Gabriel Monastery, ending an extended
saga over the property rights of the Syriac community regarding the
monastery and its surrounding area.
Last year, Turkey's Aramean (Syriac) community was disappointed
by a Supreme Court of Appeals rejection of a plea to overturn an
earlier judgment that gave the land of the Mor Gabriel Monastery to
the Treasury.
The conflict over Mor Gabriel began when land officials for the
Turkish government redrew the boundaries around the monastery and
surrounding villages in 2008 in order to update the national land
registry as part of a cadastre modernization project in compliance
with European Union instructions.
The officials finished this work across nearly half the country in less
than five years. In addition, several new laws have been passed that
require the transfer of uncultivated land to the Treasury and, in some
cases, that re-zone other land, such as forest land, transferring it
to the jurisdiction of the Forestry Directorate.
http://www.panarmenian.net/eng/news/170981/