By Harut Sassounian
www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com
In 2019, I wrote about the status of the lawsuit filed in 2012 in Turkey by the Armenian Patriarchate of
Jerusalem to recover its over one thousand real estate properties confiscated decades ago.
After going through various legal maneuvers in Turkey for years, the Patriarchate finally won last week
a major victory.
Ishan Erdinc reported the good news on October 4. 2024 in Agos Armenian newspaper of Istanbul in an
article titled, “Critical development for the properties of the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem in
Turkey: Mar Yakoup Foundation is gaining legal personality.” Mar Yakoup refers to the Armenian
Patriarchate of St. James (Sourp Hagop) in Jerusalem.
Turkey’s General Directorate of Foundations (GDF) confiscated the Jerusalem Patriarchate’s properties
in 1973, describing the Mar Yakoup Armenian Church Foundation, established during the Ottoman
Empire, as no longer functional.
Armenian Patriarch of Jerusalem Nourhan Manougian’s 2012 lawsuit was initially rejected by both a
lower court in Ankara and the court of appeal. The Patriarch then appealed to the Constitutional Court of
Turkey, the highest court in the country, which decided that the lower court had violated the rights of the
Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem. The lower court then reversed the frozen status of the Armenian
Patriarchate’s properties.
Ali Elbeyoglu, the Turkish lawyer of the Jerusalem Armenian Patriarchate, told Agos newspaper that the
Patriarchate now has two options. It will either appoint a Turkish citizen as its representative in Turkey
to manage the properties, as it was before their confiscation, or they will be managed from Jerusalem.
Over the years, most of the Jerusalem Armenian Patriarchate’s confiscated properties were sold to third
parties without any compensation to the Patriarchate.
Patriarch Manougian has never made a public announcement over the years about the lawsuit he had
filed in Turkey. The only media reports were about his multiple visits to Istanbul for undisclosed
reasons. Even though attorney Elbeyoglu told Agos that the Jerusalem Patriarchate has over 100
properties in Turkey, Patriarch Manougian, in an exclusive interview, told me in 2019 that the
Patriarchate had owned 1,200 properties in Istanbul alone and dozens more throughout Turkey. The
Patriarch also informed me that a very large and valuable property owned by the Jerusalem Patriarchate
in Yalova, Turkey, formerly a part of Istanbul, was sold by a Turkish-Armenian in the 1950’s to a Turk
and then fled to the United States. The Patriarch said he is interested in filing a lawsuit against the heirs
of that Turkish-Armenian.
Attorney Elbeyoglu told Agos last week that the Jerusalem Armenian Patriarchate owned a highly
valuable “mansion in Kuzguncuk [Istanbul], the title of which was transferred to the Ist

Metropolitan Municipality, was then demolished.” The Attorney also said that there are “21 properties
seized from the Armenian Patriarchate Foundation in Altunizade [Istanbul], [the prominent] Istiklal
Boulevard of Istanbul, the Fatih [region of Istanbul] and the City of Adana.”
It remains to be seen what the Jerusalem Armenian Patriarchate will do with the recovered properties
and the compensations it will receive for the properties sold long ago to third parties.
I suggest the Jerusalem Armenian Patriarchate form an international commission of highly respected
Armenian individuals to oversee the management of these properties and the compensations paid to the
Patriarchate. Given the controversy revolving around the sale or lease of the Jerusalem Armenian
Patriarchate’s properties in Israel, it would be in the Patriarch’s interest to exhibit transparency to avoid
secretive business deals and accusations of corruption.
The anticipated return of these properties is a very positive development since the Turkish government
has rarely agreed to give back to their Armenian owners the properties it had confiscated decades ago. In
2011, the Turkish government announced that real estate confiscated from Armenian, Greek and Jewish
charitable foundations would be either returned to them or pay compensation for the value of the
properties if they have been sold to third parties.
However, after a number of properties were given back to these minorities, the government halted the
process, even though some court cases are still pending.
I view Turkish efforts to return some of the confiscated Armenian properties as a means to whitewash
their historic crimes. Even though we should be wary of such clever Turkish ploys, we should take
advantage of every opportunity to recover a portion of what we lost during the Genocide, such as
territories, properties, and other assets. And whatever we cannot recover, we need to receive restitution
for them.
This is why Armenians should never forget past injustices and do everything possible to preserve the
memory of their losses as long as necessary. Nothing is lost forever. History will take twists and turns
and no one knows when the tide will turn in our favor. However, if we ourselves give up our claims,
they will be lost forever.