Turkey Lets Christians, Jews Reclaim Religious Properties

images archives stories AssociatedPressImages ap Turkey Armenian church photog Burhan Ozbilici
Share:

The Turkish government made a historic U-turn in state policy this past weekend, issuing an official decree inviting Turkey’s Christian and Jewish communities to reclaim their long-confiscated religious properties.

The Aug. 27 decree comes 75 years after the Turkish government seized hundreds of lands and buildings owned by its Greek, Armenian, Syriac and Jewish communities.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the surprise decision on Sunday in Istanbul, addressing a large gathering of Istanbul’s non-Muslim religious leaders representing 161 minority foundations. Invited as the honored guest for an iftar (breaking the fast) meal near the end of the Muslim month of Ramadan, Erdogan declared, “The times when citizens in our country were oppressed for their beliefs, their ethnic heritage or the way they dressed is over.”

Acknowledging past injustices inflicted on those of different faith groups, he vowed, “Those days are over. In our country, no citizen is superior to another.”

Seated next to the prime minister at the dinner, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of the Greek Orthodox Church told the press afterwards that the new decree represented “the restoration of an injustice.”

In a deliberate clarification the next day, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu emphasized that the government’s formal decision was “not a gesture toward minorities, but the return of the rights of legally equal citizens.”

The landmark decree is a significant step toward eliminating decades of unfair practices imposed by the Turkish state against its non-Muslim citizens.

Within hours of the surprise announcement, the boards of Turkey’s minority religious foundations in Istanbul were scrambling to review the status of their confiscated immovable properties. They must apply within the next 12 months to the General Foundations Board to recover each individual property.

Their former holdings include schools, churches, cemeteries, stores, hospitals, orphanages, houses, apartment buildings and factories that were seized by the Turkish state and re-registered as public or foundation properties. A number were later sold to third parties.

Previous changes in Turkish legislation enacted in 2003 and again in 2008 took only limited steps to correct a 1936 Declaration which had officially registered an incomplete list of minority properties. A further ruling in 1974 had prohibited non-Muslim communities from acquiring new property.

The new decree states that owners of properties sold by the state to third parties will be reimbursed at market value. According to Radikal newspaper, the Ministry of Finance will determine the amount of compensation for property that had been sold to third parties, who will not be required to relinquish these lands or buildings back to their original owners.

Significant Step to EU
The return of these extensive properties to their rightful owners has been a key demand of the European Union, to which Turkey is applying for full membership.

The unexpected government decree came after rising pressures from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), which has slapped heavy fines on Turkey in recent years for failing to return these seized properties to their Christian and Jewish owners. Although the ECHR has declared the expropriations a violation of both local property rights and international law, Turkish nationalists had for decades blocked any legal changes.

During July, both the EU and United States congressional leaders had upped their rhetoric regarding the long unresolved issues of religious freedom for Turkey’s non-Muslim citizens. In a statement on July 13, EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule cited a number of legislative issues on religious freedom that Turkey had not yet implemented: lack of legal personality, restrictions on the training of clergy, compulsory Islamic education, religious affiliation on identity cards and property ownership.

“Missionaries are widely perceived as a threat to the integrity of the country and to the Muslim religion,” Fule added, observing that the dialogue launched by the Turkish authorities with non-Muslim religious communities “has yet to produce tangible results.”

That same month, Ankara reacted strongly to a measure passed by the Foreign Affairs Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives calling for Turkey to “return stolen Armenian and other Christian churches to their rightful owners.” Still pending approval by both the House and Senate, the amendment was attached to the State Department’s Authorization Act for 2012.

In an EU statement yesterday, Fule called the decree “positive and conducive to the respect of freedom of religion in practice.” He cautioned, however, that the EU Commission would “monitor closely the implementation of the new legislation, in contact with both the Turkish authorities and the non-Muslim religious communities.”

Ironically, the Istanbul offices of the Secretariat General for EU Affairs are situated in a former grade school building of the Greek Orthodox Ayios Fokas Church in Ortakoy. A case to reclaim this property, formerly owned by the church’s Mektepler Foundation, is still before the ECHR.

The minority properties expected to be returned in Istanbul include more than 50 large cemeteries; several properties of the Jewish community in Kandilli, on the Asian side of the Bosphorus; and a number of buildings owned by both the Surp Pirgic Armenian Hospital Foundation and the Balikli Greek Hospital Foundation.

+ posts
Share:

Related topics:

See an error in this article?

Send us a correction

To contact us or to submit an article

Click and play our featured shows

Guiding Through Criticism: The Roadmap to Redemption

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MA-rul4E1bY Christian controversy just seems to be a thing these days. It bridges denominations, genders and borders, and when a big name in the Christian sphere stumbles or even falls on their face (metaphorically speaking), there is an army of...

Alexander Pagani and Alan DiDio: How to End Generational Curses

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPgr8qjEFx8&t=772s In an interview between apostle Alexander Pagani and Bishop Alan DiDio on the Encounter Today podcast, the two got candid about deliverance and how generational curses can impact the life of a believer. Get your FREE CHARISMA NEWSLETTERS today!...

Jentezen Franklin: Israel’s Natural and Spiritual Glory

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTRXj-8iznE&t=173s Israel: God’s Promised Land, chosen people and spiritual family. The importance of Israel is so much more than we see even on the surface. Though most of the world sees a tiny nation in the Middle East when they...

The Heretical Bible Coming for Your Kids

Do we need a ‘normal’ bible for children? Bibles made for children to understand the Word of God are not a new phenomenon. However, when it comes the new fundraising by the organization known as The Bible for Normal People,...

Hero Braves Raging Inferno to Save 11-Month-Old

An Ohio man is being hailed a hero after risking his life to save a baby trapped inside a burning home. John Stickovich, 62, told WJW-TV he rescued the 11-month-old child Monday morning, repeatedly going inside the house to try...

Critics Blast BSA for Ditching the ‘Boy’ from Boy Scouts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Wbsa9GqVdM After more than a century, the Boy Scouts of America is changing its name to become a more “inclusive” organization several years after welcoming girls and gay boys into its scouting program. The Texas-based organization is dropping “Boys” from...

Take a Step Into Your Destiny

Many Christians are stuck in the starting blocks when it comes to running their race and fulfilling the dreams God has placed in their hearts. Because they aren’t sure how a situation is going to turn out or exactly what...

Uncovered: Who is the Real Benny Hinn?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2DyhGQcegQ Who is the real Benny Hinn? After 50 years in ministry, Benny Hinn has become one of the largest voices in the Pentecostal/charismatic movement. He has been in the throes of controversy many times, especially when it comes to...

Netanyahu: ‘Israel will stand alone’

There is only one path forward for the embattled prime minister of Israel: the return of the hostages taken during the Oct. 7, massacre and the complete elimination of the terrorist organization known as Hamas. As the world recoiled from...

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 97 98 99 100
Scroll to Top