Armenian News Network / Groong
March 19, 2003
Is the existence of the legal entity of the Saint Cross
Tbrevank, which the administration of the school obtained
throughout the years allegedly by misleading the State,
a threat to the State security?
ISTANBUL, TURKEY
Tbrevank sources inform us that the office of the State Treasury
initiated a suit against the school, arguing that Saint Cross Tbrevank
doesn’t have a legal status, and as such those buildings registered to
the name of the Tbrevank Administration will be transfered to the
State Treasury.
The news arrives at a moment when the Armenian community had hoped
that the seizure of community properties under the pretext of the
Community Property Declarations of 1936 and other reasons had come to
an end. However, contrary to the expectation that fair resolutions
would be reached for previously seized properties, this current action
shatters community hopes which had been raised, based on the new law
on Property Ownership of Foundations.
Despite the fact that the current issue has no direct link with the
Community Property Declarations of 1936 or the issue of property
ownership, and is rather linked with the policy of denial directed
against the existence of the Tbevank Administration in practice for
years, in spirit it is the same: seizing Armenian property, the owners
of which are no longer alive, and re-registering it to the name of the
State Treasury.
The administration of Saint Cross Tbrevank is going on trial, the
first hearing of which will take place on the 20th March, at 9:30am.
The management of the State Treasury has two very serious and worrying
remarks in its suit:
– in the first accusation, it claims that Tbrevank, having been
founded as a school, is not entitled to be a foundation, whereas
the Tbrevank administration succeeded in getting its status as
“foundation” by misleading and fooling the State and on that basis
collecting property and financial donations from the community;
– the second point is that the Auxiliary Committee in charge of
minorities, the function of which is to monitor the activities of
minorities for the sake of State security, raised the alarm about
this issue. This body decided that the existence of a foundation
under the name of “Foundation of the Armenian School Saint Cross”
is not allowable from a legal point of view, and it is against the
law that it act as a “foundation” and that henceforth it should
continue its existence as a private school.
For this reason that body requested that the deeds of all the
properties of Tbrevank be canceled and that those properties be
registered to the State Treasury, all in the name of “the security of
the country”.
The situation is extremely tense and the school administration plans
to vigorously defend its properties against these false allegations by
all legal means. The actions under the new Turkish authorities come as
a shock to the entire Armenian community in Istanbul, which has
lobbied Europe extensively to accept Turkey into the European Union.
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