(ANSAmed) - ANKARA, OCTOBER 8 - Turkish authorities decided
the return of the lands of the historic Mor Gabriel Monastery to
the Syriac community in Turkey, as local media report. The
Assembly of Foundations, the decision-making body of the
Directorate General of Foundations, approved to return land to
the Mor Gabriel Monastery Foundation on Monday. The Director
General of the Directorate General of Foundations, Adnan Erdem,
said the assembly unanimously approved the decision to return
the land adding that this decision means the biggest land return
during the republican history of Turkey. Mor Gabriel is a
1,700-year-old historic monastery located in the southeastern
province of Mardin's Midyat district. In 2008, the Forestry
Ministry, the Land Registry Cadaster Office and the villages of
Yayvantepe, Candarli and Eglence sued the monastery for
allegedly occupying their fields. The lawsuit was finalized last
year, recognizing the monastery as an "occupier." The case was
then brought to the European Court of Human Rights. "The land of
the Mor Gabriel Monastery will return to the monastery's
foundation," Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan promised last
week, while declaring a wide range of reforms on democracy.
(ANSAmed).
(ANSAmed).
