Armenian Church Leader Speaks on Suit to Reclaim Seized Property

Rick Gladstone

 

A lawsuit in Turkey filed by the Armenian Church to recover its ancient headquarters, seized a century ago during the Armenian genocide, is the “first legal step” of a goal to reclaim all Armenian property seized by the Turks, a worldwide leader of the church said Monday.

The leader, Aram I, Catholicos of the Holy See of Cilicia, also said that if the Turkish legal authorities rejected the lawsuit, it would “deepen the divide” between Turkey and the 10-million-member Armenian diaspora.

Restitution of Armenian property remains unresolved

 Susanne Güsten

The Armenian monastery of Varagavank stands teetering on the brink of collapse in the mountains above Lake Van, in eastern Anatolia. Built a thousand years ago, and once the seat of an archbishop, it was forsaken in 1915. The monastery's buildings have more recently been used as stables, as a Kurdish villager named Mehmet Coban explained. “The manure was piled this high,” he said, marking the spot with his hand. His clan found the church like this when they settled in the former Armenian village in the 1950s, he recalled. Having shoveled out the dung, Coban now shows visitors around the church and dreams of making the village rich by turning it into a tourist destination. When he enlisted authorities to support the project a couple of years ago, it emerged that a prominent Turkish media executive in Istanbul held the deed to the monastery. His grandfather had amassed vast landholdings around Van after World War I.

Seventeen Properties Returned to Armenians in Diyarbakir

The Diyarbakir Regional Directorate of Foundations has decided to return seventeen properties in Turkey’s southeastern province of Diyarbakir to the Armenian community as a result of an initiative launched over the past year by the Diyarbakir Surp Giragos Armenian Church Foundation.

The Sabah daily reported on Monday, July 15, that during a restoration project for the historic Surp Giragos Armenian Church in 2009, the Diyarbakir Surp Giragos Armenian Church Foundation discovered a document listing the properties owned by Armenians before they left Diyarbakir between 1910 and 1921. The document reportedly lists 190 properties in twenty neighborhoods. After the discovery of the document, the foundation filed a petition with the Diyarbakir Regional Directorate of Foundations demanding the return of these properties after it found the current real estate listings of the properties.

Turkey: From the Expoliations of Yesterday to the Police Violence of Today

Collectif VAN
Translated by Vartan Matiossian

Since May 27, Istanbulites of all social and political environments, of all ages and from the entire city have pursued a resistance that had started peacefully and in a civilized way in Gezi Park, the biggest public park of Istanbul (Turkey). Unfortunately, following the police repression that has continued from many days, certain demonstrators have clashed with the forces of order.

"2012 Declaration": A History of Seized Armenian Properties in Istanbul

Raffi Bedrosyan

 



After two years of painfully detailed research through thousands of documents, the Hrant Dink Foundation in Istanbul has produced a monumental work on the history and present status of the properties that once belonged to the Armenian charitable foundations in Istanbul—properties that were all seized by the Turkish government during the last few decades. The comprehensive study, some 400 pages long, for the first time compiles a list of the seized properties, illustrating the overall picture and enormity of the plunder suffered by the Armenian schools, orphanages, churches, and hospitals in Istanbul that were dependent on the property income for survival.