Jesus and Mary were personally called to the Turkish court

25th of November, 2002.

The National Real Estate Directorate, Milli Emlak, decided against Jesus, and his mother Mary and Angel Gabriel when he confiscated their properties because they did not show up in court. This may sound like a joke, but it is not.

On November 11th 1959, Turkey's court served a summons, through the police in Istanbul, for Mariam Bind Ovahim, to appear in court. Police reported on December, 2, that they could not find her. On the 8th of January 1960, in the absence of the accused. the judge declared that since: "Mariam Bind Ovahim is nowhere to be found her property will revert to the state".

Large properties in Istanbul belonging to Mariam were confiscated without any delay. On different occasions, the National Real Estate Directorate brought law suits against 80 holy persons who did not appear in the court to plead their case. About 300 different properties were confiscated in this manner, the total value of these properties amounted to more than several billions of SEK (Swedish crowns).
Such tactics were carried out across the country, consequently hundreds of properties belonging to the Syrian/Assyrian community in Mardin, were confiscated.

How this was accomplished?

Following a decree in 1913, Christian religious foundations were forced to register their property under the name of Biblical people such as Jesus Foundation, the Mother Mary Foundation, the Angel Foundation, and other similar titles. In 1936 authorities demanded that Christians should register their property again but Christian foundations were forbidden from owning any property. During the court preceding intended to confiscate these properties their imagined Biblical owners were treated as real people. When they did not show up is court to assert their property rights the government confiscated their estates. Such confiscations also took place during 1956-1960, 1975-1979 and also 1982-1991, when the lives and properties of the persecuted Christian were not considered worthy of protecting.

When the Church leaders went to the court to claim these properties they were told that only the people under whose name the properties are registered would qualify to do so. They were asked questions such as: "where is Jesus, and Virgin Mary" the true owners of these estates, "Do they have inheritors"?

The above game of deception reported by the Turkish newspaper Sabah on the November 23, 2002 is an example of how deviously the Christian Assyrian community in Turkey was disposed from its religious properties some of which it had owned since the early centuries of Christianity.

The confiscation policy however, has had unpleasant side effects on those who ended up owning the properties formerly belonging to the Christians. The following tragic/comic incident was reported by the Turkish newspaper Bia on October31st, 2001.

Residents of Buyukdere went to the press complaining about the property they were given by the state which previously belonged to the Christian holdings, when the latter were exiled in 1915. The villagers believed that the property and the buildings are cursed. The authorities have turned a church into a school, which is impossible to heat in the winter and cool in the summer and villagers are very unhappy about it. It seems like the suffering of the Christians did not bring long term satisfaction to these Turkish citizens.

It can be added that the region of Buyukdere was famed for its fertile earth, its access to running water, and its wealth of fruits, vineyards and olive trees also confiscated from the Assyrians. Turkey's entry to the EU cannot be discussed, if the country does not deal with its past, acknowledge how it violated the human rights of its Christian citizens and confess to the pain and suffering which it inflicted on them.

Our ancestors who were treated in such barbaric manners are no longer alive. It is up to us to demand justice for their suffering.

ACSA
Assyrian Chaldean Syriac Association

zcan Kaldoyo
Jakob Rohyo
Olle Wiberg

JSrnagatan 6 B
151 72 SDERT¤LJE
Sweden

Tel: + 46 8 550 840 65