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Istanbul: Minority Foundations Demand Extra Time For Property Return

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  • Istanbul: Minority Foundations Demand Extra Time For Property Return

    MINORITY FOUNDATIONS DEMAND EXTRA TIME FOR PROPERTY RETURN

    Hurriyet
    http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/minority-foundations-demand-extra-time-for-property-return.aspx?pageID=238&nID=29042&NewsCatID=339
    Aug 31 2012
    Turkey

    Minority foundations are request extra time for the return of their
    properties, saying that the one year period given to minorities
    to demand the return of their property is not long enough due to
    bureaucratic obstacles.

    The one year period given to minority foundations for the return of
    their property has expired, but complaints are still ongoing. The
    council members of various minority foundations have underlined that
    the process has gone well for a year, but that a one year period is
    not enough for them to receive back their property and extra time
    is needed.

    Speaking to the Hurriyet Daily News, Harutyun Şanlı, a member of the
    coordination committee of the Armenian Foundations Solidarity Platform,
    or VADIP, said they had met Foundations General Director Adnan Ertem
    in early August.

    "Adnan Ertem said we had 600 properties, but were not working hard
    enough to take them back.

    Foundation heads are all amateurs. A serious examination is required
    to reveal properties. Some of our lands are occupied, some had
    highways constructed on them. Such cases must be detected," Şanlı
    said. "However, bureaucratic procedures and the indifference of some
    foundation heads make it difficult. We have neither sufficient data
    nor the 1936 declaration."

    Following the Lausanne Treaty, a law was passed in 1936 that suggested
    the recording of all minority foundations. Apart from the property
    recorded in the declaration, the foundations were prevented from
    obtaining new properties. With the Foundations Law enacted by the
    Justice and Development Party (AKP) government in 2008, it became
    possible for properties belonging to minorities to be returned to them.

    "Extra time should be given, and the elections [of foundation heads]
    should be open to the whole of Istanbul. New legislation should be
    introduced to prevent the misuse of authority, so that foundation
    heads will not just act as they wish," Şanlı said.

    Within the one-year period, Armenian Foundations received some of
    their most important foundations back in Istanbul, including the
    historic Surp Hac Tıbrevank High School in the Uskudar district,
    the Selamet Han in Eminonu, which belongs to the Yedikule Surp Pırgic
    Hospital-Foundation in Zeytinburnu.

    Controversial Mor Gabriel case

    Meanwhile, the Mor Gabriel Monastery in the Midyat district of the
    southeastern province of Mardin - one of the most important monasteries
    in the Syriac world - has been engaged in a lawsuit since 2008.

    The head of the Mor Gabriel Monastery Foundation Kuryakos Ergun said
    the time limit was too short and that during the one year period given
    none of the properties belonging to foundations in the southeastern
    region had been re-possessed.

    "The southeastern region was declared an emergency region because of
    terrorism. In 2008, the Land Registry Cadastre Office registered all
    of our property under their name and they also sued us. For trivial
    reasons, the Supreme Court of Appeals considered us squatters on
    our own property, and our appeal to take back one of our lands was
    suspended for three months," Ergun said.

    Hagia Dimitrios Church Foundation Head Dimitri Zotos said they
    experienced great difficulty in obtaining the land title records, and
    were trapped in the obstacles of bureaucracy. "We could not receive
    back even one of our foundations. We had taken this for granted,
    but each foundation has a different condition," Zotos said.




    From: A. Papazian
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