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ISTANBUL: Church asks for return of orphanage

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  • ISTANBUL: Church asks for return of orphanage

    Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey
    Dec 30 2011


    Church asks for return of orphanage

    ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News
    Vercihan ZiflioÄ?lu

    An Armenian Protestant Church applies to the Foundations General
    Directorate for the return of an Armenian orphanage that had been
    expropriated in the wake of Turkey's 1980 military coup. Pasteur
    Krikor AÄ?abaloÄ?lu says they will bring the case before the ECHR unless
    the state returns the orphans' camp



    The GedikpaÅ?a Armenian Protestant Church has filed a formal
    application with the Foundations General Directorate for the return of
    an Armenian orphanage in Istanbul's Tuzla district that had been
    expropriated in the wake of Turkey's 1980 military coup.

    `Orphans and the children of destitute families used to reside in the
    camp. If the state is truly sincere and means well and if it is really
    determined to return what belongs to us, then it ought to hand back to
    our children their home,' Pasteur Krikor AÄ?abaloÄ?lu, the spiritual
    head of the GedikpaÅ?a Armenian Protestant Church, told the Hürriyet
    Daily News.

    They would initiate legal proceedings and even bring the case before
    the European Court of Human Rights unless the state returns the
    orphans' camp, AÄ?abaloÄ?lu said.

    Hrant Dink, a Turkish-Armenian journalist who was murdered in 2007,
    also received education there and contributed to its construction with
    his brothers. `The Swallow Nest' was what Dink, the former
    editor-in-chief of weekly Agos, a paper published in both Turkish and
    Armenian, used to call the orphanage.

    `The state has returned only about 100 from thousands of foundation
    properties,' AÄ?abaloÄ?lu said in relation to the new Foundations Law
    enacted by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), adding that
    he was skeptical about the government's sincerity.

    No formal reasons were ever provided as to why the orphanage lands had
    been expropriated, AÄ?abaloÄ?lu said. `The state wants us to prove the
    title deeds of properties it expropriated. The state already knows why
    and what it expropriated. All the documents and title deeds are in
    their possession,' he said.

    The camp bears great spiritual significance for us, AÄ?abaloÄ?lu said,
    adding that Hrant Dink had also fought tooth and nail for the
    orphanage to be returned during the concluding years of his life.
    Simon Ä°Å?, a lawyer who represents minority foundations, told the Daily
    News, however, he thought the whole process of returning the property
    would be an agonizing one.

    The camp currently lies in ruins, according to AÄ?abaloÄ?lu, but it
    would undergo repairs if returned to the church, and its gates would
    then be opened once more to orphans and children of the destitute.
    In August 2011, the Turkish government signed a historic decree to
    return property taken away from minority foundations 75 years ago.

    Some of the property set to be returned to Armenian, Greek and Syriac
    foundations include schools, churches, stores, hundreds of houses,
    buildings and apartments, cemeteries, factories and even nightclubs.
    December/30/2011

    http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/church-asks-for-return-of-orphanage.aspx?pageID=238&nID=10336&NewsCatID=339

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