MINORITY COMMUNITIES READY FOR CIVILIANIZATION
Vercihan Ziflioglu
Hurriyet Daily News
Aug 29, 2011
Turkey
Prime Minister Erdogan’s meeting with Turkey’s minority leaders brings
along civilianization demands of Turkey’s minority communities. ‘Our
patriarchates are always the decision-making bodies but our communities
need to be civilianized,’ says Bedros Å~^irinoglu, the head of Armenian
Hospital Foundation
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan (C) and his wife Emine Erdogan
(2L) meet with the representatives of minority community during an
iftar dinner Sunday evening. DAILY NEWS photo, Hasan ALTINIÅ~^IK
Lay members of Turkey’s minority groups appear set to increase
their participation in their internal affairs while the communities
themselves are looking to contribute more to the overall society,
according to community leaders attending a landmark iftar Sunday with
the prime minister.
“Of course, our patriarchates are always the decision-making bodies
but our communities need to be civilianized,” Bedros Å~^irinoglu,
the head of the Surp Pırgic Armenian Hospital Foundation and a
leading member of the Armenian community, said during the event,
which marked the first time Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had
come together with all 161 minority foundations registered in Turkey
for a fast-breaking meal. Turkey’s recognized minorities include the
Jews, the Armenians and the Greek Orthodox, although other Christian
foundations also attended Sunday’s event.
“The heads of foundations will soon become decision-making mechanisms,
and the patriarchates will be endorsement centers. We are able to see
the signals of this today,” said Simon Ä°Å~_, a lawyer who monitors
developments and cases related to minority foundations, adding that
the communities had advanced a long way on the road to civilianization.
One source speaking on condition of anonymity said it was symbolic
that it was Laki Vingas, the lay head of an assembly representing all
minority foundations under the General Directorate of Foundations, who
took the floor at Istanbul’s Archaeology Museum and addressed the prime
minister during the iftar rather than traditional religious leaders.
Vingas said the iftar meeting was a result of a mutual decision of
minority communities. “We want to obtain inter-communal integration
and in this sense this event, this togetherness is extremely important
regarding the future.”
In addition to the desire for a greater civilianization of the
minority communities, many in the groups have expressed a desire to
have a greater say in the new constitution to be written during the
present parliamentary term.
Members of the communities had been buoyed ahead of the iftar by news
that a decree was published in the Official Gazzette on Saturday night
recognizing the rights of minorities to the property that was seized
from them 75 years ago.
According to the decree, minority communities will be paid
compensation at market value for the properties that were sold to third
parties. Minority foundations have 12 months to apply to benefit from
the new ruling.
“Now, our community will
be able to supply its domestic dynamics with self revenues,”
Å~^irinoglu told the Hurriyet Daily News at the event.
The decree issued by the Justice and Development Party, or AKP,
government was very important for the communities, Vingas said, but
added that some people were arguing that because the Greek population
in Turkey had decreased,
the gains from the properties were no longer of use to anyone in
the community.
“This is an unnecessary debate; I don’t want to start [such an
argument]. I don’t think we are in a position to reject property and
say, ‘Very few of us are left; what do we do with these possessions?’
I don’t think we have a right so say that,” he said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
