Historic Cemetery Returned To Armenian Community
By YUSUF ZIYA DURMUŞ
Daily Sabah, Turkey - 2/2/2015
The Armenian community of Turkey has won a legal battle for the ownership
of a historic cemetery in Istanbul in the latest success story for the
return of properties seized from minorities in the wake of legal amendments
The Prime Ministry's Directorate General of Foundations, which oversees
properties belonging to religious and ethnic minorities, has handed over
the title deed for an ancient Armenian cemetery in Istanbul's central
Å~^iÅ~_li district to an Armenian church foundation.
Following new laws allowing the return of properties to their rightful
owners, Beyoglu Uc Horan (Yerrortutyun or Trinity) Church Foundation had
applied to the Directorate in 2011 for the ownership of the cemetery. After
four years and a settlement of legal matters, the Directorate granted
ownership to the foundation for the cemetery, which covers some 41,950
square meters in the heart of Istanbul.
The cemetery's history dates back to the 19th century in which a Sultan's
decree ordered its handover to the Armenian community. In the 1930s, its
ownership was transferred to the Istanbul Municipality.
Yet, Armenian families were allowed to bury their deceased next of kin in
the cemetery even though they had no official deeds for the plots.
Among the cemetery's notable occupants are Arman Manukyan, a notable
professor of economy from Bogazici University, opera singer Toto Karaca,
composer Onno Tunc, Armenian patriarchs, and Armenian lawmaker Berc
Keresteciyan Turker, who is known for his contributions to the Turkish War
of Independence.
The place is the latest property that the Armenian community has obtained
back after their confiscation by the state. In 2012, the Directorate
General of Foundations had returned the title deed of the Armenian Catholic
Cemetery in Å~^iÅ~_li to the community and a valuable plot in Zeytinburnu
district to Yedikule Surp Pırgic Hospital Foundation.
Foundations set up by non-Muslim minorities were granted the right to
acquire properties in 1912 but a new law in 1935 ordered them to declare
the properties they owned and register their title deeds. In 1936, a list
of entire properties owned by minorities was handed to the Directorate
General of Foundations and minorities were prevented from acquiring any
property other than those in the list, thanks to an unofficial ban that was
viewed as the state's hostility towards minorities who were treated as
"second-class" citizens. In 1976, the Turkish Supreme Court of Appeals had
effectively enforced the ban and also ordered the return of properties
minorities had acquired until that year. Soon, countless plots and
buildings, especially in upscale districts of Istanbul, were handed to the
Treasury after their seizure from Greek and Armenian communities.
Markar Esayan, a columnist for Daily Sabah, says minorities have suffered
from "illegal policies" of the state-run foundations authority that
exploited legal loopholes. "Until [2008], they suffered at the hands of
fascistic measures," he says, referring to the year that an amendment in
the relevant laws "helped the state to repair its past mistakes."
"Laws in the past dealt a blow to the self-sustainability of the churches
whose survival solely depended on schools, hospitals and other sources of
revenues," Esayan says. He noted that a series of decrees helped minorities
to regain their rights in terms of return of properties. "Currently,
properties returned constitute 10 percent of the total properties supposed
to be returned. Nevertheless, it is a very important, democratic step that
the state stopped seeing minorities as enemies," Esayan says. He said that
minorities complain of several technical shortcomings in laws regarding
church foundations that sometimes complicate the procedure of returning the
properties.
"The rate of returns is not sufficient. Yet, what matters more now is a
change in the mindset, a very radical change (in the view of minorities by
the state)," he says.
Associate Professor Toros Alcan, chairman of Armenian community's Surp Hac
Tibrevank Foundation and board member of Directorate General of Foundations,
says the return of properties was "what the minorities yearned for decades."
"I can safely say on behalf of minorities that we are very happy with
decisions to return the properties," Alcan says. He said what then prime
minister and incumbent president Recep Tayyip Erdogan once said, "It is not
a blessing by the state for minorities but rather a resumption of their
rights."
Indeed, it is now almost a daily affair to see another property being
returned to minorities. Only last week, the Syriac Church in Istanbul's
Beyoglu won a lawsuit it filed for the return of its seized property nearly
60 years after it was donated to the church.
http://www.dailysabah.com/istanbul/2015/02/02/historic-cemetery-returnedto-armenian-community