TURKEY: Charitable foundations can apply for restitution of property, writes Nicholas Birch in Istanbul
The reasons courts gave for confiscating eight properties belonging to an Istanbul Armenian church between 1987 and 1993 were always the same.
According to the deeds, the buildings belonged to St John and the Archangel Gabriel. But who were these people? Judges sent inspectors out to find them, but they came back empty-handed.
Now a new EU-backed law on charitable foundations is due to set the record straight. Passed last Thursday by parliament and awaiting presidential approval, the legislation gives foundations 18 months to apply for the restitution of state-confiscated property. It also foresees the appointment of a non-Muslim member to the state department that oversees foundations.
"These are positive steps towards wiping out the effects of 1974," says Diran Bakar, a Turkish-Armenian lawyer, referring to a Turkish Appeal Court decision to cancel real estate acquisitions made by non-Muslim foundations since 1936. Coinciding with war on Cyprus, the ruling led to the confiscation of at least 4,000 properties belonging to Turkish Greeks, Jews and Armenians.
"Its aim was to dry up the minority communities' economic resources," explains political scientist Elcin Macar, who believes that the "founding philosophy of the Turkish Republic never had any space for non-Muslims".
Brussels has long-warned discrimination will have to stop if Turkey's EU bid is to succeed.
In its annual report on Turkey released last Wednesday, it criticised Ankara for ongoing limitations to religious freedom, and recommended the adoption of minority legislation in line with European Court of Human Rights case law.
Yet, despite it providing the impulse behind the new law, few expect Brussels to be satisfied with the end result. The law not only fails to provide compensation for foundations whose confiscated property has been sold on by the state, analysts point out, it also maintains the distinction between Muslim and non-Muslim foundations.
"This is my country, I see my future here," says Lakis Vingas, businessman and member of Turkey's 3,000-strong Greek community. "Yet when I turn on the TV, it's immediately clear that I'm seen as a foreigner." He is referring to the furious rows that surrounded parliament's discussion of the foundation bill.
Some deputies insisted the legislation would enable the Greek Orthodox Patriarch - a parish priest for Ankara, first among equals for the world's Orthodox church - to build an Orthodox Vatican in central Istanbul. Others worried it would involve handing Istanbul's famed Agia Sophia - once a church, then a mosque, now a museum - over to Greece.
In the case of opposition deputy Bayram Meral, prejudice took a less whimsical form. "What's this law about? It's about giving Agop his property back," he railed, using a common Armenian name. "Congratulations to the government! You ignore the villagers, the workers and the farmers to worry yourself with Agop's business."
Baskin Oran, an expert on Turkish minorities, thinks such sentiments are worryingly representative of an increasingly nationalistic parliament. "Not only will this law not satisfy Europe, it's highly likely to damage relations further, as just another example of the half-hearted reform process Turkey was criticised for in the report."