The Ecumenical Federation of Constantinopolitans to Foreign Minister of Turkey Ahmet Davutoglu
ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ ΑΡΘΡΑ
The Ecumenical Federation of Constantinopolitans (Ec.Fe.Don) is the all world unifying organization of the Greek Community of Istanbul, 98% of which is presently living under expatriate conditions, because of the systematic violations of their human and minority rights, carried out by successive Turkish Governments during the period 1923-2004.
During the last years Ec.Fe.Con has been raising to the present Government of Turkey the urgent need of remedy of past injustices and reparation towards the mentioned Community. The pending issues to be solved, were once more presented on 13 December 2013 by the President of Ec.Fe.Con Prof. Nikolaos Uzunoglu to Prof. Ahmet Davutoglu, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Turkey, on his visit to Greece. The presentation was as follows.
I express greetings on behalf of the Federation of our Associations, of a community, which was forced to live as expatriate away from its cradle. It is a unique case in the recent history where international commitments between countries – such as the Treaty of Lausanne as well as the European Convention for Human Rights established after the tragic experience of II World War, did not secure our community from forced deportation and spreading to all the length and breadth of the planet.
The Ecumenical Federation of Constantinopolitans has started, and continues with sincerity, communication with the authorities of the Republic of Turkey seeking the remedy and reparation on the gross human rights violations and injustices that our Community has suffered as a result of the policies and acts of past Turkish governments, which peaked exactly fifty years ago when without any cause, Greek citizens of Istanbul, subject to the Lausanne Treaty, were deported from their country and even characterized as ” foreign ” citizens were forced to go to exile leaving their homeland.
It is our absolute conviction , as proven by compelling evidence ,that what happened had nothing to do with the Greek-Turkish bilateral relations but was related to the decline of the rule of law and disregard of existing laws. Therefore when we intend to treat the consequences of the injustices we should not associate this with the relations between Greece and Turkey but with the subject of establishing a genuine rule of law endorsed by all its power institutions, – executive , judicial and legislative – and respect for their own laws and constitution. It is sad for us to see that once more in the last period the injustices continue, by invoking the “reciprocity” as a reason for prohibiting the operation of the Theological School of Chalki.
As a unifying body of expatriate community and after a period of two years of communication we have submitted concrete proposals to the Government of Turkey, which are realistic and compatible with the laws of the Country, and at the same time are offers to the culture and services of our place of origin, as our ancestors have always done.
Our proposals include: the recovery of citizenship, legal support on the issue of private property where our community faces serious difficulties with harsh bureaucratic behavior, support for members of the new generation who may wish to return, returning the confiscated library and the archives of the Hellenic Philology Association of Constantinopolis, and also a proposal for establishing research and development centers in Istanbul. Also it is important to resolve the issues on the properties of the minority welfare foundations, the difficulties that our community schools are facing, as well as the issue of suspending for an indefinite period the holding on elections in the minority welfare foundations, a matter that is a serious concern for us.
Unfortunately, despite the fact that the Foreign Ministry of Turkey has changed its attitude towards the issue of returning citizenships and the positive response to our community on consulate issues, there is still no progress in all others issues. Despite the circular of Prime Minister R.T. Erdogan on May 2010 asking the authorities to stop their past habits of unfair behavior towards the non – Muslim citizens they are still often take place. For example, although the necessary approvals from various levels of authorities for 4 math books for our community schools have obtained 15 months ago, the final approval from the ministry has not been granted and is pending.
Seeing the tragedies unfolding in our neighboring countries, what we need today is a prevalence of a spirit of understanding and common fight against fanaticism. In this regard, we consider as non-compliant to this spirit, the acts of conversion of museums, that formerly were churches and then mosques, again into mosques after more than 60 years of functioning as museums.
Mr. Minister we assure you that the Ecumenical Federation of the Constantinopolitans will continue to work with honesty and consistency on the remedy of the past injustices and we are sure that the success of this effort will be in the benefit for all citizens of Turkey.