TURKEY SET TO RETURN MINORITIES’ PROPERTIES

CNN International
Feb 7 2008

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey’s parliament is poised to approve a
law allowing properties confiscated by the state to be returned to
Christian and Jewish minority foundations.

The reform appears designed to meet conditions set by the European
Union for Turkey’s membership in its club, but critics say the measure
would not go far enough.

Parliament is expected to vote as soon as next week on returning
property to religious minorities, and the ruling party of Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has the majority required to approve
the law.

Parliament first approved it in November 2006, but the president at the
time, Ahmet Necdet Sezer, was a government opponent and he vetoed it.

The country of 70 million people, most of them Muslim, includes 65,000
Armenian Orthodox Christians, 23,000 Jews, and fewer than 2,500 Greek
Orthodox Christians.