Here’s a real story of stolen land and refugees with no right of return. Where are the descendants of Şurupçu Agop Efendi? Can they have their land back?
“Armenian land: the case of Diyarbakır’s most valuable soil,” by Deniz Tekin, Ahval News, February 3, 2019 (thanks to M.):
In the heart of Turkey’s southeastern province of Diyarbakır, a 400-acre plot of land filled with wheat and barely has been attracting attention as citizens have been entrenched in a decades-long legal battle over its rightful ownership.
Because the land is located in the city, realtors have estimated that each acre is valued at 1 million Turkish lira. Aside from a railway that passes through the middle of the plot and a couple of buildings, there’s been no other construction on the land.
The history of the land dates back to the Armenians who fled or were killed during the 1915 Armenian Genocide. It is said that a significant parcel of the land belongs to Şurupçu Agop Efendi, an Armenian man who supposedly lived in Diyarbakır before the genocide but has never been heard from since.
However, during the cadastral survey study that began in Diyarbakır in 1950, the land, which was registered with a title deed in several peoples’ names, brought along with it several years of legal struggles. Cadastral surveying is the process of establishing boundaries for the legal creation of properties.
The first lawsuit was filed in 1954 by Hüseyin Uluğ and Ahmet and Mehmet Arcak in Diyarbakır’s Civil Courts of First Instance alleging that their 350 acres of the land was only shown as 147 acres on paper.
Then Nuri Özbostancı and his heirs claimed that the plaintiffs in the case resorted to completing their land registration with fake documents while their own names were registered during the cadastral survey works in the 1950s. Özbostancı wanted the case to be thrown out.
The court that decided the case in 1964 ruled to revise the land registry. However, a year later, the Supreme Court overturned the decision on the grounds that the Cadastral Court had the authority to take over the case.
Meanwhile, several people and institutions claiming to be the rightful owners also turned to the courts. The Treasury claimed that the land should be given to them since it had belonged to non-Muslims who were fugitives, lost, or whose whereabouts were unknown.
According to Neymetullah Gündüz, an attorney with nearly 40 years of experience in Diyarbakır, the legal basis for the Treasury to seize property from non-Muslims stems from Ottoman history.
“In 1915, the Law on Liquidation was enacted in order to confiscate the property of non-Muslims. According to this law, which is still in force, if the non-Muslim Ottoman citizen was a fugitive, if they were wanted or if the person has used weapons against the state, their citizenship was taken away, and their goods were seized and transferred to the Treasury,” Gündüz explained….
mortimer says
There are still discriminatory dhimmi laws on the books in Turkey.
If Islam cannot tolerate equality of citizens in a state, how can there be democracy?
Mac-101 says
In America this is simple. No one owns land. You rent it from the government. Don’t pay your taxes for three years and see how fast the government puts it up for a Sheriff Sale. They don’t have property tax in Turkey?
Halal Bacon says
Only if you are indfidel
gravenimage says
Mac, the implication that things are worse in America than it is for Infidels in Dar-al-Islam is a bit hard to swallow…
Mac-101 says
Gravin, once again your gittin too emotional over a simple subject. I was just saying that it would be hard to claim land in America that you didn’t pay taxes on for over 50 years. The present property holders with years of tax receipts would have a very strong case.
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I do NOT know if they pay property taxes in Turkey. I do know that our founding fathers made land owners pay property tax and this was a solid basis of their right to vote, based on taxes paid. We have subverted this concept and now those who are dependent on the state have the right to vote for MORE free stuff. We shall not last much longer as evidence of the new Democrat Party Leaders.
gravenimage says
Yes, there is property tax in Turkey:
https://www.propertyturkey.com/buyer-guide/tax-and-turkish-real-estate
And no–I am no “too emotional”. The West has its flaws, no doubt–but we are not persecuting people as is Dar-al-Islam.
mortimer says
Agree with GI, but I get emotional on the subject of persecution, ethnic cleansing and genocide of ‘the other’. Genocide is the absolute worst of crimes.
Muslims believe it isn’t genocide when Muslims do it.
Mac-101 says
Garvin, So has been paying the property tax since the 1950s when this has been disputed?
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Mortimer, I do NOT recommend gittin emotional, it generally leads one to not consider all the ramifications of a situation and effects the decision makin process. Massive amounts of ethnic and religious cleansin is takin place today. We need to stay focused and understand HOW and WHY this is happening if we are to fight it!
gravenimage says
Mac, people have been able to reclaim property in civilized nations if they were unable to pay property taxes–for instance, Jews (or their descendants) who owned property in Europe during WWII who were murdered or had to flee.
I very much doubt that if these Christians are unable to reclaim this property in Turkey that it will be because of delinquent property taxes.
As for emotion, I think it is important to stay focused, as you note–but I also agree with Mortimer that a bit of righteous anger, so long as it does not distract from this focus, is not at all amiss.
After all, if we cared nothing about Jihad and its horrors, why would we bother to oppose it?
Mac-101 says
Graven, A person who attempts to obtain Salvation needs to Stand up and Speak out against ALL injustice, even knowing that it has little chance of changing things. Satan owns this World for now. His time is comin to an end soon.
gravenimage says
Turkey: 1915 law enacted to seize property of non-Muslims still on the books, still being used
“In 1915, the Law on Liquidation was enacted in order to confiscate the property of non-Muslims. According to this law, which is still in force, if the non-Muslim Ottoman citizen was a fugitive, if they were wanted or if the person has used weapons against the state, their citizenship was taken away, and their goods were seized and transferred to the Treasury,” Gündüz explained….
……………………….
“A fugitive”–i.e., if the dhimmi was trying to flee the genocide.
Now *that* is a catch-22. You get your land seized unless you stay and die…
Is anyone surprised that this is still on the books in Turkey?
GreekEmpress says
Not me.
Tony Naim says
This is absolutely true. My own family has experienced the same treatment by the Turks who occupied Lebanon in the past.
Public Property that still carries the family name, confiscated during an episode of Christian rebellion against the vicious anti-Christian Ottoman khalifate.
gravenimage says
Tony, I am sorry this happened to your family. Glad that your ancestors were able to get out.