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'RETURNING MINORITIES' PROPERTY AN ECONOMIC REVOLUTION'
Today's Zaman
Aug 29, 2011
Turkey
A former official from the Privatization Administration (OÄ°B) has said
a government decision to return all confiscated immovable property
belonging to minority foundations is a historic economic revolution
that would guarantee the right to own property in a country that is
aspiring to become one of the 10 largest economies worldwide by 2023,
its centennial.
Writing in the Sabah daily, former OÄ°B Vice President Suleyman YaÅ~_ar
underlined that the expropriation of all the properties more than 40
years ago was a huge blow to the country's economy. "It is a must to
guarantee property rights for an economy to grow rapidly in a proper
way," he wrote on Monday. "Now the AK Party's [Justice and Development
Party] decree will have its place as a revolution in the history of
[Turkey's] economy," he added.
The decree relating to the AK Party government's decision was
published in the Official Gazette on Saturday and thereby went into
force. Accordingly, minority foundations will be able to reclaim
real property that they had declared back in 1936. All real property,
cemeteries and fountains will be returned to their rightful holders.
Immoveable property currently belonging to third persons will also
be paid for. Minority foundations will have to apply to the Turkish
authorities within 12 months to reclaim what belonged to them
decades ago.
"This is a first in the history of the Turkish Republic and a very
significant move," said Kezban Hatemi, an attorney specializing in
minority rights, discussing the decision earlier with Today's Zaman.
"This is the restoration of a right. This move is a requirement of
the Treaty of Lausanne and one that makes our non-Muslim citizens
feel like equal citizens in Turkey," she also said on Sunday.
The confiscation of the minority foundations' properties dates back
to the early days of the Republic of Turkey when it was governed by a
single-party, non-democratic regime. The 1936 Law on Foundations, known
as the 1936 Declaration, ordered all foundations to submit a list of
their immovable properties. And because there was no regulation issued
after the fall of the Ottoman Empire that allows those foundations
to own property, the General Directorate of Foundations expropriated
all the immovable property acquired after 1936.
Turkey's mostly Muslim population of 73 million includes nearly 65,000
Armenian Orthodox Christians, 23,000 Jews and fewer than 2,500 Greek
Orthodox Christians.
ARABAÅ~^LIK 'Predictability of law necessitates rating upgrade'
For YaÅ~_ar, the biggest contribution of the government's move to
the Turkish economy is that it will make this a country where there
is a rule of law that creates predictability for foreign investors
who want to take advantage of Turkey's rapid economic growth. "This
is also a decision that requires an immediate upgrade of Turkey's
credit rating," YaÅ~_ar says.
All three major credit rating agencies place Turkey in the
non-investment cluster, which is also referred to as junk status, but
with strong prospects for rating upgrades in the near future. Moody's
rates Turkish credit Ba2, two notches below investment grade, with a
positive outlook. Standard & Poor's rates the country an equivalent BB,
also with a positive outlook, and Fitch Ratings ranks Turkey as BB+,
just one notch below its investment grade.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's AK Party has been in power
since late 2002 and, having won the June 12 elections, will remain
in office for another four years. The past eight years under the AK
Party have brought decreases in Turkey's inflation, budget deficit
and unemployment, along with improvements in economic growth. Turkey's
current account deficit (CAD), on the other hand, spiked to 8 percent
of its gross domestic product (GDP) because Turkish industries
failed to reduce their dependence on foreign intermediate goods,
and rising oil and natural gas prices caused the country's energy
bill to skyrocket.
Some say this deficit is the reason rating agencies have not upgraded
Turkey's sovereign rating to investment grade despite its achievements
over the past eight years. Others, including YaÅ~_ar, believe those
agencies' decisions are based on politics and that their technical
analyses are biased.
Today's Zaman
Aug 29, 2011
Turkey
A former official from the Privatization Administration (OÄ°B) has said
a government decision to return all confiscated immovable property
belonging to minority foundations is a historic economic revolution
that would guarantee the right to own property in a country that is
aspiring to become one of the 10 largest economies worldwide by 2023,
its centennial.
Writing in the Sabah daily, former OÄ°B Vice President Suleyman YaÅ~_ar
underlined that the expropriation of all the properties more than 40
years ago was a huge blow to the country's economy. "It is a must to
guarantee property rights for an economy to grow rapidly in a proper
way," he wrote on Monday. "Now the AK Party's [Justice and Development
Party] decree will have its place as a revolution in the history of
[Turkey's] economy," he added.
The decree relating to the AK Party government's decision was
published in the Official Gazette on Saturday and thereby went into
force. Accordingly, minority foundations will be able to reclaim
real property that they had declared back in 1936. All real property,
cemeteries and fountains will be returned to their rightful holders.
Immoveable property currently belonging to third persons will also
be paid for. Minority foundations will have to apply to the Turkish
authorities within 12 months to reclaim what belonged to them
decades ago.
"This is a first in the history of the Turkish Republic and a very
significant move," said Kezban Hatemi, an attorney specializing in
minority rights, discussing the decision earlier with Today's Zaman.
"This is the restoration of a right. This move is a requirement of
the Treaty of Lausanne and one that makes our non-Muslim citizens
feel like equal citizens in Turkey," she also said on Sunday.
The confiscation of the minority foundations' properties dates back
to the early days of the Republic of Turkey when it was governed by a
single-party, non-democratic regime. The 1936 Law on Foundations, known
as the 1936 Declaration, ordered all foundations to submit a list of
their immovable properties. And because there was no regulation issued
after the fall of the Ottoman Empire that allows those foundations
to own property, the General Directorate of Foundations expropriated
all the immovable property acquired after 1936.
Turkey's mostly Muslim population of 73 million includes nearly 65,000
Armenian Orthodox Christians, 23,000 Jews and fewer than 2,500 Greek
Orthodox Christians.
ARABAÅ~^LIK 'Predictability of law necessitates rating upgrade'
For YaÅ~_ar, the biggest contribution of the government's move to
the Turkish economy is that it will make this a country where there
is a rule of law that creates predictability for foreign investors
who want to take advantage of Turkey's rapid economic growth. "This
is also a decision that requires an immediate upgrade of Turkey's
credit rating," YaÅ~_ar says.
All three major credit rating agencies place Turkey in the
non-investment cluster, which is also referred to as junk status, but
with strong prospects for rating upgrades in the near future. Moody's
rates Turkish credit Ba2, two notches below investment grade, with a
positive outlook. Standard & Poor's rates the country an equivalent BB,
also with a positive outlook, and Fitch Ratings ranks Turkey as BB+,
just one notch below its investment grade.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's AK Party has been in power
since late 2002 and, having won the June 12 elections, will remain
in office for another four years. The past eight years under the AK
Party have brought decreases in Turkey's inflation, budget deficit
and unemployment, along with improvements in economic growth. Turkey's
current account deficit (CAD), on the other hand, spiked to 8 percent
of its gross domestic product (GDP) because Turkish industries
failed to reduce their dependence on foreign intermediate goods,
and rising oil and natural gas prices caused the country's energy
bill to skyrocket.
Some say this deficit is the reason rating agencies have not upgraded
Turkey's sovereign rating to investment grade despite its achievements
over the past eight years. Others, including YaÅ~_ar, believe those
agencies' decisions are based on politics and that their technical
analyses are biased.