Posted on 04/23/2012 10:05:01 AM PDT by marshmallow
Agreed in 1913 deal between Ottoman empire and France
(ANSAmed) - ANKARA, APRIL 19 - Turkey's Catholic community has asked the state to return 200 properties, based on a list included in a 1913 agreement between the Ottoman Empire and France, which at the time was representing the Church of Rome at the Ottoman Porte. The news has been reported by the English-language section of the Hurriyet website.
The list includes churches, schools, orphanages, cemeteries and hospitals, some of which still exist, in Istanbul (where around 100 properties are located), Ankara, Adana, Trabzon, Amasya, Samsun, Van, Konya, and other Turkish cities but also in Beirut, Damascus, Baghdad, and other Middle Eastern countries that were part of the Ottoman Empire at the time. Representatives of Turkey's Catholic community have lodged an appeal with the Reconciliation Commission of the Turkish Parliament, the website says, a reference to the parliamentary body that listens to the requests of religious and social minorities with a view to constitutional reform.
The Archbishop of Izmir and chair of Turkey's Conference of Bishops, Monsignor Ruggero Franceschini, told the commission that although the Catholic church is not legally recognised in Turkey, it is nevertheless demanding the return of the goods based on the 1913 agreement between the Grand Vizier, Said Halim Pasha, and the French ambassador, Maurice Bompard.
(Excerpt) Read more at ansamed.ansa.it ...
Why did Constantinople get the works?
Good luck and God Bless.
If I understand this correctly, the church is trying to collect from the current owner based on a contract that was entered into by two organizations that no longer exist or have rights to said assets?
Take whatever they offer.
It’s nobody’s business but the Turks.
Just like Germany paying reparations to Holocaust survivors, their children and their grandchildren, all because of an act committed by an organization that no longer exists?
The German Government, under new management, still exists as it did before WWII. The assets and owner ship of the government as an entity did not change. It's apples and oranges. I have hope for the best for the church. And I don't know all the facts or history. But for the contract to be valid (in accordance with the law I know, US law) there would have to be an assumption of liabilities, as there was when Nazi Germany was reformed. I can only assume international contract law must have some similiar recognition regarding consideration, consent and assumption of liabilities when assuming ownership of assets. If an asset was conquered or once forcibly seized and re-assigned, I'm not sure how a lawful society would rule, let alone a regigiously driven government that is anti-Christian to begin with. Who will judge and rule? Who would enforce the ruling? I don't see the UN jumping in with sanctions on behalf of the Christian Church.
I'm not saying its right. It isn't fair. But that's my opinion on the likelyhood of the church being able to collect on the contract.
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