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Paper
presented on the OSCE ODIHR Meeting on Human Dimensions in
Warsaw
on October 18th, 2000
Mr.
Moderator,
The
Constantinopolitan Society represents over 100.000 Greek Orthodox, who
expatriated from Istanbul by Turkish coercion.
This
year, like every other year, from this desk, the violations of the
Turkish State towards the Greek minority living in Istanbul will once
again be revealed.
As
we all know, Turkey is a member of the United Nations, and in addition
to the Lausanne Treaty is signatory to all treaties and accords
protecting minority rights within the framework of the OSCE; moreover,
it was just recently granted candidate status for membership of the
European Union. Nevertheless Turkey continues to disregard all
international conventions, blatantly violating and infringing these
agreements despite the disclosures contained in reports published from
time to time by reliable organizations such as Human Rights Watch and
other agencies concerned with the protection of human rights. The US
Senate as well as the European Parliaments numerous resolutions which
condemn illegal actions and measures taken by the Turkish State
against the Greek minority in Istanbul is a substantial proof of what
is going on at present in Turkey.
In
previous addresses we revealed the existence of a discriminatory
Secret Decree in Turkey (No. 6/3801 of 1964), banning the sale or
transfer of the ownership of the immovable belonging to Greek
nationals. In fact Turkey was condemned for this action through a
specific resolution issued by the European Parliament (Resolution No.
B3-0173 & 0180 of 1994)
Today,
we want to disclose yet another ploy of the Turkish State: The
existence of the Secret Committee on Minorities (Aznlk Tali Komisyonu)
which was set up in 1972 by members of the General Directorate of
Charitable Foundations (Vakuf), the Ministry of Interior, the General
Chiefs of Staff, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Turkish
Secret Services (MIT). According to a report published recently in the
reputable Turkish Magazine Aktüel (May 2000), this committee guides
and influences the Judicial Authorities with regard to decisions taken
on issues concerning, among other things, minority properties.
A
recent example of violation of the rules of International Law, through
the intervention of this Minorities Committee, is confiscation of all
properties from the still active Greek Orphanage Foundation (despite
the existence of valid title deeds) and cancellation of the operating
permit of its legally elected administration.
Another
example is seizure of the main building housing since 1902 the Greek
Orphanage on the island of Büyükada whose deeds of possession belong
to the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
A
third example is the attempt to confiscate the property of the summer
nursery (Paidoupolis), situated within a Greek Monastery on the island
of Knalada not to mention the dozens of other instances in which
property belonging to the Greek Community has been confiscated. It
should be pointed out that the administration bodies of the
institutions in question have been dragged through lengthy, costly and
time consuming judicial proceedings, always to no avail because of the
veto imposed by the Secret Committee on Minorities.
There
are of course many other cases of lack of impartiality on the part of
the Turkish courts, in addition to those already mentioned.
Hopeless
to stress out the corruption that exists within the Turkish
administration, which allows organized crime to appropriate Greek
properties.
It
is no coincidence that a paragraph referring to the free and
unhindered administration of charitable foundations (vakuf) and places
of worship of non-Muslim citizens was removed from a recent draft bill
(road map) discussed in a sub-committee of the Turkish Parliament, the
purpose of which was harmonization of the countrys legislation with
the Copenhagen criteria. It follows, therefore, that opposition to an
improvement in the living conditions of the countrys minorities
operates from the higher echelons downwards.
It
is thus crystal clear that violations and illegalities cannot be
called into question by anyone except, of course, by the Turkish State
itself which, in an attempt to justify statistics showing that the
Greek Community in Istanbul has shrunk from 120.000 in 1923 to just
2.000 people today, claims that this dwindling occurred for economic
reasons.
For
the umpteenth time, we appeal to all democratically sensitive
countries and all those that have been co-signatories to texts
produced from time to time by the OSCE to apply mechanisms for
monitoring the offending country in question and convince to honor its
signatures, accept equality before the law, impose legislative
transparency and Rule of Law.
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