Jewish community in Izmir gains legal satatus

Turkey's Foundations Council Dec. 13 recognized the country's Jewish community in the Aegean province of Izmir as a legal entity, thereby resolving a century-old problem regarding ownership rights over the community's properties and houses of worship.  The ownership of some four shops and a dozen synagogues, including Shalom, Giveret, Elgazi, Bikurholim, Beth Israel and Rosharr on Izmir's Havra Street, will be turned over to the newly recognized "Izmir Jewish Community Foundation," once bureaucratic procedures are completed, daily Hurriyet reported. "It bears great significance for real properties to be placed within a legal framework and officially registered in the name of the Jewish community," Laki Vingas, the spokesperson for Anatolian Greek foundations and a council member in charge of minority foundations under the Foundations Directorate General, told the Hurriyet Daily News. The decision was extremely appropriate, Vingas said, adding that the Jewish community in Izmir rested on a 300-year-long past. "We meticulously dwelt upon the return of three foundations. One of these was the derelict Anatolian Greek High School in [Istanbul's] Beyoglu district, while another one was the Jewish Foundations that have now been handed back in Izmir," Vingas said. The Armenian Clerical School Tibrevank Foundation in Istanbul's Uskudar district is next in line, he said. The Armenian clerical school's theology department was shut down in 1969 by the Turkish state, and the foundation was then taken over from the Armenian community. While the Sourp Hac Armenian High School continues to provide education under a special status inside the school's historical building, trials pertaining to the clerical school are still underway. "There is substantial history lying there. Even restoration work could not be performed. It was in terrible shape. Now our assets have been returned back to us," Mari Loker-Gormezano, who ran for a seat in Parliament from the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) on behalf of Turkey's Jewish community during the last elections. The Turkish government enacted another measure that went into effect on Aug. 27 to return properties seized from minority foundations through a proclamation that was declared in 1936. The decision also required financial reparations to be paid to minority communities at market value for properties that had been sold to third parties.