‘Urban plan won’t affect minorities’

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

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Urban transformation projects will not affect minority land rights, says Laki Vingas, a council member of the Directorate General of Foundations.

“It is not possible for the new laws on the urban transformation to harm the minority foundations,” Vingas told Hürriyet Daily News recently.

His remarks came in the wake of a parliamentary question submitted by the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) deputy Erkan Akçay about Vingas’ position in the Directorate General of Foundations.

Akçay asked for Vingas’ dismissal from his post in the Directorate on the grounds that he is also a member of the administrative body of the Panaiya Greek Orthodox Church located in Istanbul’s Yeniköy neighborhood.

Akçay said despite being responsible for the Minority Foundations in the Directorate General of Foundations, Vingas is also a manager at the Panaiya Greek Orthodox Church and applied to the Directorate for the registration of six real estate tracts belonging to the Church.

Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç confirmed that Yeniköy’s Panayia Greek Orthodox Church is being represented by Vingas at the Foundations Council and that Vingas applied for the registration of six pieces of real estate on behalf of the church, in his response to the parliamentary question. Arınç also said the situation is not against the law.

 Vingas told the Daily News that his situation is in line with laws and regulation. “I am not doing anything against the law and regulations. I took the position in the church foundation by an election,” he said.

“I believe I am doing my job in the most correct way. I am not offended by such questions. I am not doing anything against the law,” he added.

Vingas has represented around 166 minority foundations in the Directorate since 2009 and is the first person among the minorities being appointed to this post.