PanARMENIAN.Net
Turkey going to return property to Christian and
Jewish minority foundations
07.02.2008 18:16 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Turkey’s parliament is considering a
law that would allow 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 the
bloc, 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
secularist who was often at odds with Erdogan’s
Islamic-rooted government, and he vetoed it. The
country’s population of 70 million, mostly Muslim,
includes 65,000 Armenian Orthodox Christians, 23,000
Jews, and fewer than 2,500 Greek Orthodox Christians.
The law would allow foundations to recover confiscated
properties, but it was not clear if they would be
allowed to reclaim property that has been sold or
whether they would be compensated for the loss of such
properties. President Abdullah Gul, a close associate
of Erdogan, is expected to approve the measure, the AP
reports.