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Turkey failing on minority property rights

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  • Turkey failing on minority property rights

    The International Herald Tribune, France
    March 15 2009


    Turkey failing on minority property rights

    ReutersPublished: March 15, 2009
    By Ayla Jean Yackley

    Turkey's EU-inspired reforms of laws limiting property rights have
    created new obstacles for ethnic minorities and threaten to stymie
    progress towards membership of the bloc, a report said.

    Non-Muslim Turks still face "anti-democratic and unlawful practices"
    that violate the European Convention on Human Rights, despite
    legislation in September that sought to ease restrictions on their
    property ownership, the report by the Turkish Economic and Social
    Studies Foundation, or Tesev, said.

    The European Union has said Turkey must expand rights for minorities
    if it is to advance its membership bid. The European Commission
    welcomed the new law in its annual progress report on Turkey, but said
    the government had failed to implement it fully and had not resolved
    outstanding property disputes.

    "The rights of minorities are of utmost importance in the EU process,"
    Dilek Kurban, one of two authors of the Tesev report, said at a news
    conference on Saturday.

    "If Turkey is unable to resolve the issue of property rights, EU
    membership is impossible."

    Since the 1930s, Turkey has seized thousands of properties belonging
    to Greek, Armenian and Jewish foundations. The foundations are mainly
    tasked with overseeing assets belonging to the minorities.

    Turkey has also curbed their ability to buy and sell assets, receive
    financial assistance from overseas and generate revenue from property.

    The law passed in September lifted such restrictions and includes
    terms for the return of some of the confiscated property. But it
    offers no "fair solution" to ensure the return of assets and now
    requires non-Muslim charities to seek state permission to acquire new
    property, Istanbul-based Tesev said.

    Turkey's population of 71 million is 99 percent Muslim. About 80,000
    Armenians, Jews and Greeks remain in Turkey, the descendents of
    Ottoman Empire subjects.

    Under the new law, the state has re-registered properties it has
    seized under different names to prevent their return and bars
    non-Muslims from establishing new foundations, a right afforded Muslim
    charities, the report said.

    Turkey has lost five cases at the European Court of Human Rights in
    the past two years that were brought by ethnic Greek and Armenian
    foundations. The Strasbourg-based court ordered the Turkish government
    to return the properties or pay about 3.8 million euros in
    reparations.

    Turkey's main opposition parties have appealed to Turkey's top court
    to strike down the new law on foundations.

    "The government is making efforts to meet EU criteria, but unless all
    parties and institutions are part of the process, little progress can
    be achieved," said Kezban Hatemi, the second author of the report.

    (Editing by Alison Williams)
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