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European Court Fines Turkey In Greek Orthodox Case

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  • European Court Fines Turkey In Greek Orthodox Case

    EUROPEAN COURT FINES TURKEY IN GREEK ORTHODOX CASE
    By Ayla Jean Yackley

    Reuters
    March 3 2009
    UK

    ISTANBUL (Reuters) - The European Court of Human Rights Tuesday ruled
    Turkey had violated the property rights of a Greek Orthodox foundation
    by seizing its land and ordered the government to pay damages.

    Judges said Turkey had breached the European Convention on Human Rights
    by barring the foundation from registering its title to a church and
    surrounding lands on the Aegean island of Bozcaada, a statement from
    the court said.

    It is the latest ruling by the Strasbourg-based court against Turkey
    for violating the property rights of its ethnic Greek minority. The
    European Union, which Turkey seeks to join, has called on the
    government to return seized properties to minorities and expand their
    religious and cultural freedoms.

    The European Court of Human Rights fined Turkey 105,000 euros
    ($131,880) for damages and expenses after it ruled authorities had
    illegally prevented the rightful owner of the Kimisis Teodoku Greek
    Orthodox Church from registering its property, the statement said.

    The foundation was denied the right to register its title to three
    pieces of land and a building on the island after the state land
    registry was reorganized in 1991, the statement said.

    Turkish courts had ruled against the foundation because it had
    missed an initial deadline to re-register its deed and had ordered
    the property be turned over to the state Treasury.

    The Istanbul-based Greek Orthodox Patriarchate, spiritual leader of 250
    million faithful worldwide, has filed more than two dozen cases with
    the European Court of Human Rights to recover some of the thousands
    of properties it says it has lost.

    In September, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in a separate
    case that Turkey had violated the property rights of the patriarchate
    by seizing a 100-year-old orphanage on an island off of Istanbul and
    ordered its return.

    It has also ruled that Turkey illegally took control of other
    properties in Istanbul owned by Greek foundations.

    About 25 mostly elderly ethnic Greeks live on Bozcaada, part
    of a community of 2,500 Greeks in Turkey, which is 99 percent
    Muslim. Istanbul, Turkey's largest city, is also home to about 15,000
    Jews and 60,000 Armenians.
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