Turkish Laws Do Not Allow The Armenian Church To

[MosJan]

TURKISH LAWS DO NOT ALLOW THE ARMENIAN CHURCH TO RETURN 'ITS SEIZED PROPERTIES''

 

Christopher Smith, co-chair of the US Helsinki Committee, announced that the current legislation of Turkey doesn’t allow the Armenian Church to return its properties "unjustly seized by the state."

 

Mediamax agency informed that Mr. Smith said this during his speech at the US Helsinki Committee hearing on the religious freedom in Turkey.

 

"The Armenian Church has lost the great part of its property as a result of the laws that allow the government to directly manage the property when the number of the local community doesn’t amount to a definite number. On its turn, the Istanbul Armenian Patriarchate keeps working on the acknowledgement of its legal status. Last September, Turkey adopted new rules for measuring the religious communities that allow the communities that have legal status purchase new properties. But the loss of the properties made great harm to the Armenian Church, while the legislation of the country doesn’t allow to demand back the properties illegally seized by the state," Christopher Smith said.

 

The US Helsinki Committee is an independent agency that carries out the monitoring of the implementation of the commitments undertaken by 55 OSCE member countries.