Two major Armenian groups in US are divided over Turkey’s recent decision to return properties seized by state from minorities over several decades.
The two largest American-Armenian groups have expressed opposing views over Turkey’s recent announcement that hundreds of properties seized by the state from minorities over the past seven decades will be returned to their rightful owners.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s announcement is just a “smokescreen,” said the Armenian National Committee of America, or ANCA, the largest and most influential US Armenian group. The more moderate Armenian Assembly of America, or AAA, the second-largest US organization, said however that the decision was “a step in the right direction.”
The Turkish move was made due to “fear of mounting losses at the European Court of Human Rights and the recent [committee] adoption of US Congressional legislation calling attention to its repression of Christian communities,” ANCA said in its statement
“Erdogan’s decree, clearly prompted by increased Congressional scrutiny of Turkey’s repression of its Christian minority and successive losses at the European Court of Human Rights, will return less than 1 percent of the churches and church properties confiscated during the Armenian genocide and the decades that followed it,” said ANCA Chairman Ken Hachikian.
“The Turkish government’s announcement of its decision to abide by the rulings of the European Court of Human Rights to return the long-ago confiscated properties of minorities comes as a step in the right direction,” the AAA said in a written statement late Wednesday. “While it remains to be seen how the government will implement this new measure, the policy holds the promise of restoring the rule of law for minorities long discriminated against in Turkey,” it added.
“The announcement comes in the wake of a series of developments in Turkey resulting in increasing civilian oversight of several branches of the Turkish government previously controlled by the military. Some of these reforms stem from Turkey’s aspirations for membership in the European Union,” the AAA said. “As far as the Armenian minority in Turkey is concerned – after a century of violent persecution, official discrimination, and public racism – the decree to return some of the confiscated properties is a welcomed development, but cannot begin to redress the magnitude of the damage inflicted.”
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