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Turkey To Return Seized Assets To Non-Muslims

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  • Turkey To Return Seized Assets To Non-Muslims

    TURKEY TO RETURN SEIZED ASSETS TO NON-MUSLIMS

    Peninsula On-line
    Aug 31 2011
    Qatar

    ANKARA: Turkey is preparing to return the confiscated property of
    non-Muslim minorities, in an effort to reassure the European Union
    over its fair treatment of all religions, a government source said
    yesterday.

    A governmental decree was published in the official journal over
    the weekend stating that property seized from minority religious
    groups, under a 1936 declaration, would be returned within months or
    restitution made where this is impossible .

    The decision notably concerns several hospitals, schools, cemeteries
    and orphanages listed in a 1936 census as belonging to the Armenian
    and Greek Orthodox minorities in Turkey.

    The decision also includes the return of some properties to Jews
    in Turkey.

    Today the Greek Orthodox population numbers little more than 2,500
    people in Istanbul. There are also some 60,000 Armenians and 15,000
    Orthodox Syrians among the minority religious groups.

    A treaty signed with the Western powers in 1923, after the creation
    of the Republic of Turkey from the ruins of the Ottoman empire,
    allowed non-Muslim groups to retain their own education systems and
    property rights.

    As a result of the new ruling, hundreds of properties will have to
    be handed back, according to the local press.

    The EU has been critical of Ankara~Rs attitude towards minorities in
    the country, and this restitution exercise is one of the conditions
    of eventual membership in the European bloc.

    The European court of human rights has also pronounced that the
    confiscations are illegal.

    Turkey is an official EU candidate nation but faces several hurdles
    to eventual membership.




    From: A. Papazian
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