Hürriyet Daily News
Turkey’s Foundations Directorate General has agreed to return the Galata Greek Elementary School in Istanbul back to the minority foundation which originally owned the estate, 38 years after the school was expropriated by the state.
The school will be the first property to be returned to a minority following a 2011 bill approved by Parliament.
The return of other foundation properties are likely to follow next, said Laki Vingas, a member of the Foundations Directorate General, adding that he was overjoyed by the school’s return.
Bureaucratic proceedings could take about two months before the school is finally handed back, according to officials from the Galata Greek Elementary School Foundation.
Parliament approved a bill in August 2011 to either return foundation properties back to their original owners or to pay compensation for them. The Galata Greek Primary School Foundation was the first to apply when the new law came into effect, said Vingas.
The Foundations Directorate General examined the documents of ownership provided to them by the foundation and based its decision on a provisional clause that was added to the Law of Foundations on Aug. 28, 2011, Anatolia news agency reported.
The school building in Istanbul’s Galata neighborhood was counted among the foundation’s properties in an official declaration issued in 1936 but taken over by the Treasury after 1974.
Thirteen minority foundations have thus far filed applications at the Foundations Directorate General to retrieve their properties, according to reports. k HDN
