Jerusalem Patriarchate wins lawsuit to recover its vast properties in Turkey

By Harut Sassounian

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.