Turkish parliament passes minority foundations property law

The law would allow foundations to reacquire confiscated properties, but it was not clear if they would be allowed to reclaim property that has since been sold to other people.

It also allows foundation to reclaim properties registered under the names of saints. A committee will be established to decide which properties should be returned. President Ahmet Necdet Sezer must approve the reform before it takes effect.

Turkey's reluctance to concede to demands of non-Muslim minorities stems from a deep mistrust many here feel toward Greece, Turkey's historical regional rival.

Turkey seized some properties owned by minority foundations in 1974 following years of ethnic clashes in Cyprus which led to the invasion of the island by Turkey following an abortive coup by supporters of union with Greece the same year.

At the time, a Turkish court ruled that the foundations had no right to acquire property that they had not declared in 1936 when they were asked to specify their sources of income.

The amendments however, fell short of minorities' expectations and does not address some types of confiscated properties, such as cemeteries or minority school properties - which are not foundations.

On Wednesday, the European Commission in a progress report said the pace of political reforms has slowed, criticizing Ankara's human rights record on torture and freedom of expression. The commission threatened to suspend Turkey's entry negotiations unless Turkey opened its ports and airports to EU-member Cyprus by mid-December.

On minority rights, the parliament recently ratified a motion giving more administrative rights to minority schools, but removed a passage that would have allowed foreign students to attend these schools - but avoided addressing the possible reopening of a Greek Orthodox theology school shut down 35 years ago.

Turkey has been resisting pressure from the EU to reopen the Halki Theological School on Heybeliada Island near Istanbul, which was closed to new students in 1971 under a law that put religious and military training under state control.

The seminary trained generations of Greek Orthodox leaders including the current Patriarch Bartholomew I, a divisive figure in Turkey, which does not recognize his international role and rejects his use of the title "ecumenical," or universal, arguing instead that the patriarch is merely the spiritual leader of Istanbul's dwindling Orthodox community.

The seminary remained open until 1985, when the last five students graduated.

The Orthodox school issue is likely to attract attention when Pope Benedict XVI meets Bartholomew in Istanbul during a visit to Turkey later this month.

The patriarchate in Istanbul dates from the 1,100-year-old Orthodox Greek Byzantine Empire, which collapsed when Muslim Ottoman Turks conquered Constantinople, today's Istanbul, in 1453. The Associated Press

/The International Herald Tribune/