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The
National Minority of the Greeks of Istanbul
Paper
presented on the OSCE ODIHR Meeting on Human Dimensions in
Warsaw
on October 24th, 2000 (Session 10: National minorities).
Ladies
and Gentlemen,
Under
the terms of the Treaty of Lausanne which brought the Greco-Turkish
War to an end, 120,000 Greeks stayed on in Turkey after 1923; this
figure was offset by the 86,000 Muslims who remained in Greek Thrace.
The number of Muslims in Greek Thrace today exceeds 100,000, while the
Greek Community in Turkey, oppressed by a systematic orgy of
persecutions, has dwindled to just 2,000 people.
Turkish
diplomacy has been lying to all the international organizations for
decades, claiming that the Greek minority which stayed on in Turkey
after 1923 has shrunk for economic reasons and that Greeks fled Turkey
en masse of their own free will in search of a better life, just like
economic refugees the world over.
On
behalf of a large Society whose members have been subjected to the
hardships and cruelty of the Turkish persecutions, I should like,
within the limited time at my disposal, to list just some of the
actions carried out by the Turkish State over the past 70 years; I
shall explain how even today Turkish justice is literally
snatching properties of immense value from the hands of their rightful
owners, the Greeks in Turkey.
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In
1928, the large district of Tatavla in Constantinople, 90% of
whose residents were Greek, was burned to the ground.
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In
1941, as soon as Turkey had signed the "friendship and
cooperation" agreement with Nazi Germany, it selectively
mobilized young men of Greek, Armenian and Jewish descent between
the ages of 25 and 40. These "conscripts", many of whom
suffered a tragic death, were sent to forced labour camps in the
depths of Turkey’s eastern provinces.
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In
1942, secure in the neutral position it maintained throughout the
Second World War, Turkey devised the emergency property tax (Varlik
Vergisi - No. 4305/12.11.1942). This tax, paid almost exclusively
by Greeks, Jews and Armenians, was imposed in an unprecedented and
totally arbitrary manner on the fixed assets belonging to Turkey’s
non-Muslim inhabitants. Those who were unable to pay the enormous
sum demanded for this sudden tax within the time-limit of 30 days
were arrested and removed to forced labour camps, where many of
them died.
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On
the night of 6th September, 1955 the Turkish government organized
a staggering pogrom against the Christians living in
Constantinople. Within the space of six hours, groups of
demonstrators organized and directed by agents of the Turkish
State burned, destroyed and looted 4,340 Greek shops, 2,600
Christian homes, 73 churches, 26 Greek schools, 110 Greek
restaurants, 21 factories, 27 pharmacies and the premises of all
the Greek newspapers published in Turkey. At least 20 people died
and 200 women or girls were raped during that terrible night,
which I also lived through as a child.
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In
1963 and 1964, the Turkish government launched a wave of
expulsions of the Christians of Greek nationality who were living
in Turkey; as a result, approximately 48,000 Christians were
forced to leave Turkey within just a few months. The expulsions
were carried out on such a massive scale that the lists of
refugees who had to leave Turkey for reasons of "public
safety" included the names of hundreds of elderly people,
four who were mentally ill, two handicapped individuals, one who
was deaf and dumb and six who were dead!
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Almost
simultaneously with the expulsions, the Turkish government put
into effect Secret Decree 6/3801, issued on 2nd November 1964,
which prohibited transfer of the ownership of property and other
titles belonging to all individuals of Greek nationality and
blocked, without exception, all the accounts held by these people
at Turkish credit institutions and banks. This Secret Decree was
rigorously implemented in Turkey for more than two decades until
it was finally abolished - officially, at least - in 1987.
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In
1971, in violation of any notion of international obligation, the
Turkish government decided to close the famous Theological School
at Halki which it still keeps closed today, despite the enormous
international outcry.
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Now,
after the forced abolition of Secret Decree 6/3901 - an
unprecedented piece of legislation for a so-called democratic
country - Turkish justice has found another resourceful way to
plunder the fixed assets of Greeks: it does not permit the sale or
purchase of property belonging to the Greeks in Turkey, arguing
"reciprocity" in the handling of their respective
minorities which Greece and Turkey had agreed under Article 45 of
the Treaty of Lausanne. Turkey considers that the Greek Law
1892/1990 imposing certain restrictions on the sale or purchase of
property in all border regions of Greece, for reasons of national
security, "prevents" the Muslims of Turkish nationality
from buying and selling property in Greece! In other words, Turkey
is invoking the very treaty that it itself has systematically
violated, debased and contravened by reducing the number of Greeks
in Turkey from 120,000 in 1923 to the present 2,000, with the aim
of seizing their properties! The "reciprocity" invoked
by Turkish courts today is an unbelievable provocation by any
reasoning, since this "reciprocity" refers to Greece’s
right to reduce the number of Muslims in Thrace to the same number
as the Turkish Republic reduced the Greeks in Turkey and is not,
of course, a weapon for the pillaging of Greek properties! At this
very moment, trials are taking place relating to vast properties
that belong to Greeks, while Turkey - sometimes on the pretext of
this so-called "reciprocity" and at others on the basis
of a decision (which would be considered unprecedented in any
civilized country) that the Greeks in Turkey have no rights of
inheritance - has been expropriating as many Greek properties as
it can.
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In
addition to confiscating privately-owned properties, however, the
Turkish Republic is today operating a wide variety of ingenious
schemes aimed at gaining possession of the title deeds of
properties belonging to the Greek Community in Turkey, which are
of immense value. One such strategem concerns the
"discovery" by the Turkish courts in the course of the
last few years that gifts made to Community institutions in Turkey
by Greek benefactors after 1936 are invalid and that these
properties belong to the Turkish State!
Ladies
and Gentlemen,
After
this brief summary of some of the actions carried out by the Turkish
State you will understand why there are strong reservations regarding
both the will and the ability of the Turkish Republic to conform to
the European idea of a Just State, and why we must make a concerted
effort to put a stop, even at this late stage, to the flagrant
disregard for any kind of human right and for all the obligations
which the Turkish Republic undertook within the context of the Treaty
of Lausanne.
Thank
you for your attention.
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