How the Tuzla Armenian Orphanage issue was resolved

I wrote on this subject once in a previous column. The issue of the Tuzla Armenian Orphanage, also known as Kamp Armen, was a bleeding wound since a case was opened for the cancelation of its land title in 1983 and it was returned to its former owner in 1993. For your information, the Republican People's Party (CHP) laid the grounds of this fascistic practice during the single-party period. The state started its expropriation activities in the guise of legal proceedings to eradicate the foundations remaining from Christians and Jews from the Ottoman period. Foundations provided the only chance for the communities of different religions to maintain themselves on religious, educational, health-related and social subjects. Thanks to those foundations, churches, schools, cemeteries, hospitals, associations and sports clubs could survive and ethnic and cultural assets were protected in this way.Regarding itself as secular, Western and modern, the CHP mindset undermined those institutions in order to eradicate the communities of different religions in the country. With the legal cases they opened, with partial decisions and through granting or buying activities, the properties of foundations, particularly the most valuable ones, were seized. Armenians, Greeks, Jews, Chaldeans and Syriacs were supposedly dispossessed of 600 foundation properties. Therefore, the declining foundations started to have difficulties in maintaining their services while the communities they served started to lose their power and emigrated.

After the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) came to power, it started to transform the mindset on this matter, which is democratic, impartial and fair. It first ended the seizure practice by changing the Foundations Law, which opened the way for the return of seized properties. So far, 353 valuable foundation properties have been returned, and the process is still ongoing. The AK Party did not only provide the returns. Until quite recently, even driving a nail into churches and historic buildings was not allowed. With the regulations, foundations were enabled to reacquire, reclaim and rejuvenate their properties. Today, various valuable projects are planned and implemented regarding the foundation properties and the communities are prospering financially.Things were much more complicated for the Tuzla Armenian Orphanage. After its land title was canceled and it was returned to its former owner in 1993, the owner immediately sold it for fear that it would be seized and the title changed hands multiple times, so it was excluded from the scope of the Foundation Law's return provision by entering into the private property law. When I conveyed this subject to Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, we were given full authorization to resolve the problem and end this unjust practice by finding a new formula at all costs. With a busy diplomatic schedule that went on for three weeks, the owner accepted to return the land to the foundation and he directly issued a public announcement. The rest of the process only consists of technical procedures. I think the preparations will be completed and the land title will be returned this week.

It might be thought that those steps were taken to increase votes on the eve of the general elections, which is not very reasonable. Otherwise, it would be required to wait for 353 elections to return 353 properties. Every party's expected vote rate is more or less obvious, and it is hard to persuade extreme anti-AK Party groups no matter what the AK Party does. The AK Party is a movement endeavoring to resolve the deprivations and victimizations created by the former state mindset regardless of religion, ethnicity or sect. The Kamp Armen issue might have waited for decades if it had not been intervened in now. Kamp Armen, which cherishes the memory of Hrant Dink, has a great value to Davutoğlu. The issue was resolved through political means with Davutoğlu's personal intervention, which is the requirement of our claim of a New Turkey. As the first Armenian deputy candidate preparing to join Parliament with the AK Party after 55 years, I am really proud and happy to have such a president, prime minister and government.