Tag: Patriarch

  • Jerusalem Patriarchate Wins Lawsuit To Recover its Vast Properties in Turkey

    Jerusalem Patriarchate Wins Lawsuit To Recover its Vast Properties in Turkey

    In 2019, I wrote about the status of the lawsuit filed in 2012 in Turkey by the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem to recover its over one thousand real estate properties confiscated decades ago.

    After going through various legal maneuvers in Turkey for years, the Patriarchate finally won last week a major victory.

    Ishan Erdinc reported the good news on October 4. 2024 in Agos Armenian newspaper of Istanbul in an article titled, “Critical development for the properties of the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem in Turkey: Mar Yakoup Foundation is gaining legal personality.” Mar Yakoup refers to the Armenian Patriarchate of St. James (Sourp Hagop) in Jerusalem.  

    Turkey’s General Directorate of Foundations (GDF) confiscated the Jerusalem Patriarchate’s properties in 1973, describing the Mar Yakoup Armenian Church Foundation, established during the Ottoman Empire, as no longer functional.

    Armenian Patriarch of Jerusalem Nourhan Manougian’s 2012 lawsuit was initially rejected by both a lower court in Ankara and the court of appeal. The Patriarch then appealed to the Constitutional Court of Turkey, the highest court in the country, which decided that the lower court had violated the rights of the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem. The lower court then reversed the frozen status of the Armenian Patriarchate’s properties.

    Ali Elbeyoglu, the Turkish lawyer of the Jerusalem Armenian Patriarchate, told Agos newspaper that the Patriarchate now has two options. It will either appoint a Turkish citizen as its representative in Turkey to manage the properties, as it was before their confiscation, or they will be managed from Jerusalem.

    Over the years, most of the Jerusalem Armenian Patriarchate’s confiscated properties were sold to third parties without any compensation to the Patriarchate.

    Patriarch Manougian has never made a public announcement over the years about the lawsuit he had filed in Turkey. The only media reports were about his multiple visits to Istanbul for undisclosed reasons. Even though attorney Elbeyoglu told Agos that the Jerusalem Patriarchate has over 100 properties in Turkey, Patriarch Manougian, in an exclusive interview, told me in 2019 that the Patriarchate had owned 1,200 properties in Istanbul alone and dozens more throughout Turkey. The Patriarch also informed me that a very large and valuable property owned by the Jerusalem Patriarchate in Yalova, Turkey, formerly a part of Istanbul, was sold by a Turkish-Armenian in the 1950’s to a Turk and then fled to the United States. The Patriarch said he is interested in filing a lawsuit against the heirs of that Turkish-Armenian.

    Attorney Elbeyoglu told Agos last week that the Jerusalem Armenian Patriarchate owned a highly valuable “mansion in Kuzguncuk [Istanbul], the title of which was transferred to the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, was then demolished.” The Attorney also said that there are “21 properties seized from the Armenian Patriarchate Foundation in Altunizade [Istanbul], [the prominent] Istiklal Boulevard of Istanbul, the Fatih [region of Istanbul] and the City of Adana.”

    It remains to be seen what the Jerusalem Armenian Patriarchate will do with the recovered properties and the compensations it will receive for the properties sold long ago to third parties.

    I suggest the Jerusalem Armenian Patriarchate form an international commission of highly respected Armenian individuals to oversee the management of these properties and the compensations paid to the Patriarchate. Given the controversy revolving around the sale or lease of the Jerusalem Armenian Patriarchate’s properties in Israel, it would be in the Patriarch’s interest to exhibit transparency to avoid secretive business deals and accusations of corruption.

    The anticipated return of these properties is a very positive development since the Turkish government has rarely agreed to give back to their Armenian owners the properties it had confiscated decades ago. In 2011, the Turkish government announced that real estate confiscated from Armenian, Greek and Jewish charitable foundations would be either returned to them or pay compensation for the value of the properties if they have been sold to third parties.

    However, after a number of properties were given back to these minorities, the government halted the process, even though some court cases are still pending.

    I view Turkish efforts to return some of the confiscated Armenian properties as a means to whitewash their historic crimes. Even though we should be wary of such clever Turkish ploys, we should take advantage of every opportunity to recover a portion of what we lost during the Genocide, such as territories, properties, and other assets. And whatever we cannot recover, we need to receive restitution for them.

    This is why Armenians should never forget past injustices and do everything possible to preserve the memory of their losses as long as necessary. Nothing is lost forever. History will take twists and turns and no one knows when the tide will turn in our favor. However, if we ourselves give up our claims, they will be lost forever.

  • U.S. Veep Biden Meets Patriarch Bartholomew in Turkey

    U.S. Veep Biden Meets Patriarch Bartholomew in Turkey

    NEW YORK — U.S. Vice President Joe Biden met Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, the spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians, in Istanbul on Saturday.

    Nicholas Magginas U.S. Vice President Joe Biden met Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians, in Istanbul on Saturday.
    Nicholas Magginas U.S. Vice President Joe Biden met Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians, in Istanbul on Saturday.

    Vice President Biden was greeted at the entrance to the Patriarchal compound by His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios of America, together with the Chancellor, the Chief Secretary of the Holy and Sacred Synod, and the Patriarchal Court.

    His All-Holiness met with the Vice President in his personal office for a private conversation. Among the issues discussed were religious freedom in Turkey, the reopening of the Theological School of Halki, Turkey’s accession to the European Union, and the ecological initiatives of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

    via U.S. Veep Biden Meets Patriarch Bartholomew in Turkey – Udated.

  • Istanbul’s Armenians Take Issue of Electing New Patriarch to the Courts

    Istanbul’s Armenians Take Issue of Electing New Patriarch to the Courts

    Epress.am — The civil hearings of the lawsuit launched by lawyers from Istanbul’s Armenian community vs. the Turkish state were held in Istanbul on Sept. 29.

    2 0 istanbulsAs reported by the Epress.am correspondent in Istanbul, the case refers to the elections of the Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople (Istanbul). Due to the current Patriarch’s poor health, the Armenian community wanted to elect a new Patriarch. Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople Mesrob Mutafyan has been suffering from dementia for several years and is unable to perform his duties.

    In 2 years, the Armenian community gathered 6,000 signatures, appealing to Turkish authorities to organize elections for a new patriarch — which apparently they are able to do, according to Ottoman rules dating from 1863.

    The Turkish state denied this request, stating that as long as Mesrob II remains alive, a new patriarch cannot be elected.

    As a result, the Patriarchate electoral committee decided to take the issue to court to assert their right to elect a new patriarch. The first hearings took place yesterday with the presence of several Armenian attorneys. Spokesperson for the attorneys Sebuh Aslangil said that’s a pity that they are forced to take the issue up in court but the community needs to elect a new patriarch.

    The committee of Armenian attorneys have declared that they’re against Turkey’s intervention. They are currently awaiting the court’s ruling.

     

    Article source:

    via ArmeniaDiaspora.com – News from Armenia, Events in Armenia, Travel and Entertainment | Istanbul’s Armenians Take Issue of Electing New Patriarch to the Courts.

  • Patriarch writes from Istanbul to support preserving Hellenic Hill in JP – Jamaica Plain

    Patriarch writes from Istanbul to support preserving Hellenic Hill in JP – Jamaica Plain

    By Matt Rocheleau, Town Correspondent

    An effort to save a 12.5-acre undeveloped Boston oasis has received a significant blessing from a religious leader nearly 5,000 miles away who was described by 60 Minutes as “one of the world’s most important Christian leaders, second only to the pope.”

    In February, the Jamaica Plain-based Community Caring Institute wrote the leader of the Orthodox Christian Church who lives in Turkey asking that he support their efforts to preserve woodlands owned by, and recently considered for sale by, Hellenic College, a Greek Orthodox Christian school on a 59-acre campus straddling the border of Brookline and JP.

    The institute’s director and neighborhood activist Gerry Wright said Monday the group received a response from His All Holiness, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, Archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome earlier this month.

    Replying to the group’s correspondence, the religious leader known for his environmental activism and nicknamed the “Green Patriarch” expressed support for preserving Hellenic Hill in JP, Wright said.

    “When I picked up the letter at the mailbox and it said it was from Istanbul, I couldn’t believe it,” said Wright Monday by phone.

    While the letter was “clearly not a promise” by the patriarch to ensure the land would not be developed or sold to developers, Wright said “he felt very positive” about the response. He said he also received a follow-up letter from New York City-based Primate of the Greek Orthodox Church in America, His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios of America, who chairs the college’s trustee board.

    School spokesman John Papson said Tuesday he was aware of the communication sent from both the patriarch and archbishop but had not seen the text either letter. Officials at the archbishop’s office in New York referred requests for comment to the college.

    Wright said copies of the letters his group has received will be available at a community forum to discuss “visions, reflections, ideas and concerns” about the hill’s future at 7 p.m. on Wednesday at the First Church on Eliot Street.

    The plot along Prince Street and overlooking Jamaica Pond was listed for sale by the college in January with an $18-million asking price. Some residents and groups fear the property may be bought from the college by someone eyeing to develop the valuable piece of real estate.

    “The beauty of Hellenic Hill … is [when you’re there] you feel as if you’re in Maine, New Hampshire or Vermont,” said Wright, who is also the founder and president of Friends of Jamaica Pond.

    The friends group has also launched an online petition to “Save Jamaica Pond’s Watershed” that now boasts over 800 signatures.

    Wright said the hope is that by combining city, state, private organization and community members’ funds, the land that has been threatened by development three times in the past can be purchased from the college for permanent preservation.

    E-mail Matt Rocheleau at mjrochele@gmail.com.

    via Patriarch writes from Istanbul to support preserving Hellenic Hill in JP – Jamaica Plain – Your Town – Boston.com.

  • Ecumenical Patriarchate wins landmark court ruling in Turkey

    Ecumenical Patriarchate wins landmark court ruling in Turkey

    Prompted by the European Court of Human Rights, a Turkish tribunal has given the Ecumenical Patriarchate legal title to a disputed orphanage.

    The ruling is a major victory for the Orthodox patriarchate because for the first time, the Turkish government is recognizing the Ecumenical Patriarchate as a legal institution with international standing. The orphanage– like many other Christian institutions in Turkey– had been taken over by the government on the basis of an earlier ruling that the rejected the legal claims of the Patriarchate.

    via Catholic Culture : Latest Headlines : Ecumenical Patriarchate wins landmark court ruling in Turkey.

  • Orthodox patriarch backs Turkey’s EU bid

    Orthodox patriarch backs Turkey’s EU bid

    BRUSSELS, Belgium: The spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians urged the European Union on Wednesday to take on Turkey as a member if it improves democratic and human rights standards.

    “Europe needs to bring Turkey into its project,” Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I told the European Parliament.

    “What I and the majority of the people of Turkey wish is full integration, full membership of the European Union, on condition that the criteria and preconditions that apply to all candidates are abided by,” he told a later news conference.

    Bartholomew, who is based in Istanbul, Turkey, is the spiritual leader of hundreds of millions of Orthodox Christians worldwide.

    He appealed to the EU not to make religious or cultural differences an obstacle to Turkish membership. Turkey’s population of 70 million is predominantly Muslim.

    “But I do not think that should be considered to be a stumbling block,” Bartholomew said. “We must not exclude from the European family somebody who simply has a different belief from us.”

    But he said Turkey needs to improve protection for religious minorities as part of wider human rights reforms. Bartholomew called in particular for Turkish authorities to allow the reopening of a Greek Orthodox seminary and return Church property.

    Turkey’s efforts to join the EU have long been hampered by disputes over democratic standards, human rights and the divided island of Cyprus.

    The EU insists religion is not an obstacle to Turkey joining, but opinion polls indicate many Europeans are wary about letting the country into the 27-nation bloc.

    Bartholomew gave his backing to talks between the president of Cyprus and the country’s breakaway Turkish north in order to end the island’s 34-year division.

    “We are very optimistic and very hopeful that this time the dialogue between the two communities will have a happy outcome,” he said.

    Source: International Herald Tribune, September 24, 2008