Posted on 01/21/2013 9:20:50 AM PST by marshmallow
Following a meeting held on Friday, the Council of Foundations -- part of Turkey's Directorate General for Foundations (VGM) -- returned 190 hectares of forest to the Greek Orthodox Halki (Heybeliada) Seminary in İstanbul.
According to the decision, 190 hectares of woodlands near the Halki Seminary will be given to the seminary's owner, the Aya Triada Monastery Foundation. This is the biggest property return to a minority group in the history of Turkey.
Established in 1844 on the island of Heybeliada, Halki Seminary was closed in 1971 under a law that placed religious and military training under state control. It was the only school where Turkey’s Greek minority educated its clergy. The theological school once trained generations of Greek Orthodox leaders, including the current Patriarch Bartholomew, who is one of its 900 graduates.
(Excerpt) Read more at todayszaman.com ...
190 hectares = 469.5 acres or 0.73 square miles.
Give a little land back to the Greeks to look moderate, while arresting journalists and secularists.
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