The International Herald Tribune, France
March 15 2009

Turkey failing on minority property rights

ReutersPublished: March 15, 2009
By Ayla Jean Yackley

Turkey’s EU-inspired reforms of laws limiting property rights have
created new obstacles for ethnic minorities and threaten to stymie
progress towards membership of the bloc, a report said.

Non-Muslim Turks still face "anti-democratic and unlawful practices"
that violate the European Convention on Human Rights, despite
legislation in September that sought to ease restrictions on their
property ownership, the report by the Turkish Economic and Social
Studies Foundation, or Tesev, said.

The European Union has said Turkey must expand rights for minorities
if it is to advance its membership bid. The European Commission
welcomed the new law in its annual progress report on Turkey, but said
the government had failed to implement it fully and had not resolved
outstanding property disputes.

"The rights of minorities are of utmost importance in the EU process,"
Dilek Kurban, one of two authors of the Tesev report, said at a news
conference on Saturday.

"If Turkey is unable to resolve the issue of property rights, EU
membership is impossible."

Since the 1930s, Turkey has seized thousands of properties belonging
to Greek, Armenian and Jewish foundations. The foundations are mainly
tasked with overseeing assets belonging to the minorities.

Turkey has also curbed their ability to buy and sell assets, receive
financial assistance from overseas and generate revenue from property.

The law passed in September lifted such restrictions and includes
terms for the return of some of the confiscated property. But it
offers no "fair solution" to ensure the return of assets and now
requires non-Muslim charities to seek state permission to acquire new
property, Istanbul-based Tesev said.

Turkey’s population of 71 million is 99 percent Muslim. About 80,000
Armenians, Jews and Greeks remain in Turkey, the descendents of
Ottoman Empire subjects.

Under the new law, the state has re-registered properties it has
seized under different names to prevent their return and bars
non-Muslims from establishing new foundations, a right afforded Muslim
charities, the report said.

Turkey has lost five cases at the European Court of Human Rights in
the past two years that were brought by ethnic Greek and Armenian
foundations. The Strasbourg-based court ordered the Turkish government
to return the properties or pay about 3.8 million euros in
reparations.

Turkey’s main opposition parties have appealed to Turkey’s top court
to strike down the new law on foundations.

"The government is making efforts to meet EU criteria, but unless all
parties and institutions are part of the process, little progress can
be achieved," said Kezban Hatemi, the second author of the report.

(Editing by Alison Williams)