Turkey acts to restore rights to encourage non-Muslims

Following AK Party government's initiation of the debate on non-Muslims' rights last year, members of those minority groups convened to discuss the issue.

A conference on Jan. 30 at Istanbul's Bilgi University will look into the problems encountered by non-Muslims in Turkey and the mindset behind the disdain towards them. Council of Europe's Venice Commission endorses the event titled "Legal Entities of Non-Muslims: Problems and Rights".
Upon initiation of the debate, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan held talks with representatives of non-Muslim minorities regarding their problems. Following those talks, Laki Vingas, a Turkish citizen of Greek descent and representative of Minority Foundations led the debate on restoring minorities' rights, particularly on property issues. Vingas was appointed to the board of Turkey's state-run General Directorate for Foundations as the first non-Muslim member.

"Wise People", a group of intellectuals appointed by the government to survey the problems faced by minorities, presented a report to the prime ministry on the matter in 2013. This will be followed by a conference at a university in the capital Ankara on legal entities of non-Muslim communities.
Among issues to be discussed at the conference are the structure of non-Muslim minorities and their leadership, their legal entities, state's stand on the rights of non-Muslims from the Ottoman Empire to the Republic and the international view on the rights of non-Muslims. Foreign experts, Turkish historians and jurists of Armenian, Greek and Jewish heritage, professors and intellectuals will be involved in the discussions.

Non-Muslim minorities in Turkey have long been treated as second-class citizens in the twentieth century. The controversial wealth tax imposed in 1942, targeting rich non-Muslims, a pogrom in 1955, the deportation of non-Muslim Turkish citizens in 1964 added to "a fear of state" among non-Muslim minorities.

The "democratization package" announced by the AK Party government last year included a pledge to return properties that were forcibly seizedfrom non-Muslim community foundations during the early years of the Republic to their rightful owners.