ICC Note:

“Non-Muslim groups in Turkey have praised highly the government’s recent move to return properties confiscated from religious minorities since 1936,” Today’s Zaman reports.

By Yonca Poyraz Dogan

9/4/2011 Turkey (Today’s Zaman) – Non-Muslim groups in Turkey have praised highly the government’s recent move to return properties confiscated from religious minorities since 1936, and look forward to the announcement of regulations as to how the law will be implemented.

According to a decree published in the Official Gazette last weekend, property seized from Christian and Jewish religious foundations will be returned to them, and in cases where property belonging to such organizations has been sold by the state to third parties, the religious foundation will be paid the market value of the property by the Ministry of Finance.

The decision was announced before an iftar (fast-breaking dinner) on Aug. 28, attended by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and representatives of non-Muslim communities in İstanbul. Turkey’s non-Muslim citizens applaud the move and say the step was expected, since the government has been working on the issue for some time.

“This is a very positive move,” said Rober Koptaş, editor-in-chief of the Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos. “However, we have to see how the law will be implemented.”

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‘Syriacs and Turkish Protestants excluded’

In addition, there is the issue of the Greek Orthodox seminary on Heybeliada, which remains closed despite international calls for its reopening. The European Court of Human Rights last year ordered the Turkish government to re-register a historic Orthodox orphanage to the İstanbul-based Fener Greek Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarchate, and also told Ankara to pay 26,000 euros to the patriarchate for both non-pecuniary damages and costs and expenses.

Turkey’s population of nearly 70 million, mostly Muslim, includes about 65,000 Armenian Orthodox Christians, 23,000 Jews and about 2,500 Greek Orthodox Christians. While Armenian groups have 52 and Jewish groups have 17 foundations, Greeks have 75. Some of the properties seized from those foundations include hospitals, schools and cemeteries.

Meanwhile, 15,000 Syriac Orthodox Christians also live in Turkey, along with several other smaller religious minorities. Although the 1923 treaty allowed “non-Muslims” to retain special education and property rights, within Turkey’s arbitrary definition of the concept of a “minority,” Syriacs and Turkish Protestants have been excluded from the legal arena.

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