Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Dec 6 2007

TESEV: religious minority rights a democracy issue

A bill on the property rights of religious foundations is about
democratization and the state of freedom of religion, said a speaker
at a conference organized by the Turkish Economic and Social Studies
Foundation (TESEV) on Wednesday.

Participants at the conference on the law on foundations, currently
pending in Parliament, discussed the shortcomings of the law which
has been debated in Parliament for years now. Under Turkey’s current
legislation regulating the property rights of religious minorities,
only some non-Muslim religious groups can own property. The new bill,
presented in 2002 under pressure from the EU will allow non-Muslim
religious communities to keep what they already own and recover
property taken from them over the past 70 years.
Ankara dragged its feet on the new legislation despite the fact that
it is a condition for EU accession. It was passed in Parliament in
November last year, but was vetoed by then-president Ahmet Necdet
Sezer. It is likely to pass in the next few weeks in Parliament since
the European Commission has been calling on Turkey to pass the
property law without further delay. However, the draft is far from
able to solve some of the most fundamental and urgent property
related problems of Turkey’s religious minorities, stated Dilek
Kurban, who heads the democratization program of TESEV.

Not only will the law fail to solve all of the problems stemming from
the current property regime, but it would also legitimize some of the
violations of the rights of religious minorities, Kurban said. She
also noted that Sezer’s veto clearly showed that religious minorities
are seen as `foreigners’ in Turkey as he had made mention of
`reciprocity’ in regulations concerning religious community
foundations. `Reciprocity is something that applies to citizens of
another country,’ Kurban explained. She argued that certain new
arrangements in the bill could exacerbate some of the problems of
non-Muslim foundations.

Kezban Hatemi, an experienced lawyer in minority rights who also
spoke at the conference, said, `The problem of religious community
foundations is one of democratization, fundamental rights and
freedoms and the freedom of religion.’ She also criticized the
Turkish media for uninformed coverage of the foundations law, calling
on media professionals to educate them about the legislation. `The
existence of these foundations is crucial to the existence of our
minorities,’ she said.

Erol Dora, a lawyer representing the Syriac Christian community of
Turkey, said the media often conveys an image of the legal status of
religious minorities granted by the Lausanne Treaty as `privileges.’
`Everybody is equal under the law. Minority rights have a special
status — affirmative action,’ he said.

Sebu Aslangil, a lawyer representing the Armenian community, appealed
to press members to communicate with minority groups’ lawyers before
reporting any stories on the property rights law. Diran Bakar, a
lawyer who also represents Turkey’s Armenians, said the bill is most
likely to be passed in its current form. `When that happens, we will
appeal to the European Court of Human Rights,’ he said.

Turkey has been ordered to pay hundreds of thousands of euros to
minority foundations in accordance with European court rulings. More
lawsuits are expected to come when the legislation is passed, the
speakers noted.

06.12.2007

BARIÞ ALTINTAÞ ÝSTANBUL