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  • Turkey's Step Not Of Great Value

    TURKEY'S STEP NOT OF GREAT VALUE
    Karen Ghazaryan

    Radiolur
    30.08.2011 17:19

    The Turkish Prime Minister has recently signed a decree to return
    hundreds of properties that were confiscated from religious minorities,
    Christian and Jewish religious properties by the state or other
    parties over the years since 1936, and would pay compensation for
    properties that were seized and later sold. Is this real progress or
    a demonstration of Turkey's traditional policy?

    >From the point of view of the Armenian community of Istanbul the
    return of the part of the confiscated property should be assessed as
    a positive step, expert of Turkish studies Anush Hovhannisyan told a
    press conference today. However, according to her, the step is such
    a small one and needs to be spoken about.

    "It's a very trifle step, since the loss of Armenians was immense,
    taking into consideration that the process of confiscation of
    Armenians' property was continuous, especially during the genocide
    and the years that followed," she said.

    Therefore, the expert is assured that this step of Turkey fits into
    its traditional policy and contains certain danger. According to
    political scientist Levon Shirinyan, practice shows that no law has
    ever been fully implemented in Turkey. Both are confident that Turkey
    has made the step out of its own calculations.

    According to Anush Hovhannisyan, this is first of all a PR action.

    Besides, Turkey thus wants to solve a practical issue: the European
    Court of Human Rights is flooded with numerous cases against Turkey,
    and the latter is losing in most cases.

    Ankara pursues the purpose to diverge the attention from the Armenian
    Cause, to separate Turkish Armenians from the rest of Diaspora and
    prevent the recognition of the Armenian Genocide, as the Congress is
    expected to start discussions soon.

    There is another issue Turkey is trying to solve. "Every fall the
    Council of Europe discusses the issue of religious minorities in
    Turkey, and every time it criticizes Turkey. This is an attempt to
    mitigate the criticism," Levon Shirinyan said.

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