THE CONSTANTINOPOLITAN SOCIETY
ESTABLISHED 1928

ADDRESS TO THE OSCE CONFERENCE
in Warsaw 15/10/2003

(Session 10: National Minorities)

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Since 1923, the size of the Greek Orthodox Community in Turkey has been dramatically reduced from 120.000 people to just 1.000, due to systematic policy of discriminatory measures, pogroms and administrative harassment followed by the Turkish authorities.

This policy of the Turkish authorities covered all the minority rights including the education, the property and the religious freedom.

Today I will refer only to property rights of the Greek minority of Constantinople. The Property of Ìinority charitable, religious and educational Foundations belong to more than 61 local Greek Orthodox communities or parishes and also include two major foundations, namely the Balukli hospital and the Buyukada orphanage.

The legal status of these institutions is ruled by a law intended for Muslim “Vakifs” or religious endowments, despite the fact that minority fictitious persons enjoy special protection under the Lausanne Treaty. Many of them are turned into “mazbut”, thus readily available for confiscation. Meanwhile their governing committees are routinely discharged on grounds of mismanagement. Recent examples include the Buyukada Orphanage and the community of St. Dimitrius of Kurtulus.

The authorities have contended, ever since a relevant 1974 Supreme Court ruling, that all property that is not included in a non-exhaustive 1936 list does not belong to the minority institutions. They interpret that list as a restrictive one, depriving, thus, the institutions from the right to claim property not included therein and even from the right to acquire new property.

Under this practice, the Balukli hospital alone, a 650 bed facility which provides care to well over 35.000 people annually, regardless of creed or nationality, has lost 135 assets.

Pressed by its candidacy for EU membership, Turkey has undertaken since summer 2002 a reform attempt in this matter. However even with this new reform  most of the said injustices are remain intact and contain restrictive provisions which actually result in the loss of even the remaining minority Foundations’ property.

Moreover, further steps have been taken by the Turkish regime in order to deprive the Greek minority of its property. Intimidation is a constituent part of this policy. The members of the Foundation Board and their lawyers have suffered from acts such as anonymous calls, stone throwing and "tailing" in the streets. At the same time, others have been severely warned by high-ranking officers that "the presence of minorities in Turkey continues only on sufferance of the State and should not be put in danger by their own actions.” A statement which articulates and explains very clearly the perception of Turkey towards minorities issues.

Additionally, this perception is also institutionalised within the Turkish State and expressed by the Turkish General Directorate for Vakifs, which is the competent institution for the recognition of real estate property to minority religious and community foundations. Indicatively, only 396 out of 1.727 claims submitted by the Greek Foundations were accepted at first hand, while the others were either rejected or not even considered, and this practice applies, also, to Armenian and Bulgarian Foundations.

These figures are cited for what they are worth, since Turkish authorities have replied to Foundations’ claims in a very unsystematic way, apparently based not on the Foundations’ applications, but on their own records while, no reply at all was given to a large number of claims!

Apart from the Foundations, the property of minority individuals of Greek or Turkish Nationality have undergone the same arbitrary practices. But this time, is the Cadastre service which have used various methods, resulting into the registry of minority property -both individual and communal- in the name of the Turkish Government. For instance any property of absent proprietors is considered abandoned and consequently is confiscated by the Turkish Government.

In corroboration of the above, the abrogation of the 1964 secret decree which prohibited all real estate transactions, had no retroactive effect  and numerous realties have been claimed by the Turkish government without any scruple. In addition to this systematic policy and in order to legitimise it, the Turkish Courts have decided that the Greek nationals cannot buy or inherit real estate in coastal and border areas, for security reasons , including Constantinople, invoking the principle of reciprocity, which in this case is deliberately misused.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Obviously, the above mentioned Turkish policies pay no respect to the relevant provisions of the Lausanne Treaty and, furthermore, are in total conflict with the common values that the member-states and the acceding states are sharing within the European Union and which are expressed by the European Convention of Human Rights concerning the rights to property, to religious freedom and to fair trial.

Since Turkey has decided to make its relation with Europe more concrete and solid and finally become a member of the European family, it has to abide by values, such as rule of law and democracy, which reflect its level to readiness to incorporate the European aquis and its level of willingness to apply it. Because what counts for Europe is not only the embodiment of the European law but the application of it to everyday life and until this very moment, Turkey impeded the minorities from exercising their internationally recognized rights. 

In order for Turkey to become part of the democratic European family in accordance with the European acquis, its minority policies should be governed by new clear and comprehensive laws, not by obsolete and intentionally complicated legislation, including administrative bylaws and regulations that can be changed overnight.

Thank you for your attention.