Turkey returns legal ownership of property to Syriac minority

MARDİN

Turkey has returned the legal ownership of cemetery land and properties to the minority Syriac community in the southeastern province of Mardin, state-run Anadolu Agency reported on May 23. 

Kuryakos Ergün, head of the foundation at the Mor Gabriel Monastery, said the problem arose when the Mardin municipality’s status was changed to a metropolitan municipality in 2014.

As a result, the title deeds of the monastery, church, and cemeteries belonging to the Foundation of the Monastery of Mor Gabriel were handed to the Turkish state treasury.

“Today, monasteries, churches, and the cemetery lands of the Syriac community have been transferred to the foundation. This arrangement, which resolves the property dispute, is of great importance,” Ergün said.

Last July, Deputy Prime Minister Hakan Çavuşoğlu pledged to return the “mistakenly” transferred lands and the cemetery amid confusion following the administrative change.