Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Feb. 22, 2008
Foundations Law pleases neither nationalists nor minorities
Turkey’s nationalist politicians have stated that they are most
uneasy about a law ratified by Parliament on Wednesday to return
properties confiscated by the state to non-Muslim religious minority
foundations, while the minorities in question have said they too find
the law dissatisfactory.
The law also allows minority foundations to receive funding from
foreign countries. Nationalists say allowing minority foundations too
much freedom in their dealings with foreign countries would run
contrary to the principle of reciprocity, as not all Turkish
foundations in foreign countries have the same rights. Non-Muslims
state that they are offended by this argument, saying it turns them
into hostages in their own country. However, minority groups say
despite some improvements in their property rights, the new law risks
exacerbating the problems of non-Muslim minority foundations.
The EU has long been pressing Turkey to pass the measure that would
allow the foundations belonging to minority groups to reclaim seized
assets — including churches, school buildings and orphanages — that
were registered in the names of saints. EU officials hailed the
decision, including EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn, who said:
"The adoption of the new law on foundations is a welcome step
forward.
This is an important issue for Turkey, and one that all EU
institutions have regularly highlighted as important to ensure
fundamental rights and freedoms for all Turkish citizens."
The law would also allow Muslim foundations to receive financial aid
>From foreign countries. The reform appears designed to meet
conditions set by the EU for Turkey’s membership in the bloc.
Parliament passed the measure 242-72. President Abdullah Gül, a close
associate of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan, is expected to
approve the new legislation .
The improvements include allowing non-Muslim foundations to work
together with organizations in foreign countries, establish branches
and representation offices abroad, set up umbrella organizations and
become members of organizations established abroad.
Nationalists are ill at ease with the law. Deputy leader of the
Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Mehmet Þandýr in evaluating
Wednesday’s vote on the minority bill said on Thursday in a statement
he made to the press that his party has made all the warnings it
possibly could against the law. "Why this persistence and obstinacy?
Which problem of the nation will you be solving with this law?" he
asked. Þandýr said the law was passed not for the country and the
nation but because the EU and the US demand it.
"From our perspective, this is no innocent law. It is an obvious
attack on the sovereignty and independence of the Turkish nation. It
is a violation of Lausanne, the European Human Rights Convention and
the Constitution. This is a political decision, and it will have
political consequences. It is a law of treason that is preparing a
state similar to the partitioning and eventual collapse of the
Ottoman Empire."
Þandýr, in a statement directed at the Justice and Development Party
(AK Party), said, "You cannot possibly defend such an extensive range
of freedoms without violating the Treaty of Lausanne." It was in the
1923 Lausanne Treaty where most foreign powers recognized the current
frontiers and the establishment of the Republic of Turkey. He claimed
that the future of Turkey was being pushed into chaos by the law.
"This law has passed now but when we come to power we will annul this
law," he said.
In a statement released a few days before the law was passed the
Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV), which works
together with committees representing minority groups, agreed, t that
it was a violation of the 1923 treaty, but for an entirely different
reason. "The present text of the draft is not acceptable because it
violates the fundamental rights and liberties of non-Muslim citizens
that are guaranteed under the Turkish Constitution, the European
Convention on Human Rights and the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne," TESEV
said.
TESEV has appealed to the government and Parliament many times to
listen to representatives of non-Muslim foundations and come up with
a new bill, saying the one adopted on Wednesday was not capable of
solving the problems of Turkey’s minority foundations.
Meanwhile, State Minister Hayatý Yazýcý, who provided information on
the law, said Parliament had passed historical legislation. "From now
on, wherever there are buildings left from Ottoman foundations in the
world from Kosovo, Serbia, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Greece, Syria to
Algeria, Turkey will be restoring and maintaining these," he noted.
He said nobody had reason to have any suspicions about the law.
"There is a sensitive republican government that protects rights and
laws in every sphere. The only target of this government is to serve
everyone equally," said Yazýcý.
Background on seizure of minority property
Turkey seized some properties owned by minority foundations in 1974
around the time of an intervention on Cyprus that followed a coup
attempt by supporters of union with Greece.
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.
Parliament first approved the measure in November of 2006. But the
president at the time, Ahmet Necdet Sezer, was a secularist who was
often at odds with Erdoðan’s Islamic-rooted government, and he vetoed
it.
Critics have said, however, that the measure makes no clear provision
for assets that have since been sold on to other people.
Religious minorities have often complained of discrimination in
Turkey, which has a history of conflict with Greece, a country that
is predominantly Christian, and with Armenians, another mostly
Christian group.
22.02.2008
Today’s Zaman with wires Ýstanbul