Minorities’ legal entity issues to be discussed in Istanbul conference

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

A group of community leaders gather in Istanbul at a government-led meeting in this photo taken from the Community foundations website.

The legal entities of minorities in Turkey will be discussed in Istanbul on Jan. 30 at a conference hosted by the Istanbul Bilgi University Faculty of Law, in partnership with the Community Foundations Representative Office and with the assistance of the Venice Commission.

The conference, titled “Legal Entities of Non-Muslims: “Problems and Rights II,” will start at 09.00 a.m. at the university’s law faculty building in the Dolapdere neighborhood.

The conference will open with speeches by Prof. Dr. Turgut Tarhanlı, the dean of the law faculty, and Laki Vingas, the Minority Community Foundations representative.

On May 13, 2013, the problems of the minority communities in Turkey were discussed at a conference held at the Ankara University and Minority Community Foundations’ office in Ankara.

Many institutions belonging to religious or ethnic minorities such as churches, cemeteries, and hospitals are deprived of legal entity rights, including the Fener Greek Patriarchate, Turkey’s Armenian Patriarchate, the Jewish Chief Rabbi’s Office, and various Catholic institutions.