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Ethnic minority communities are prevented the right to own and transfer property and train religious clergy.

In 1974 amid political tensions over Cyprus, the report says, the High Court of Appeals overturned a 1936 declaration against minorities in Turkey owning property. Despite amendments made in the law in 2002 permitting minority foundations to acquire property (including for religious purposes) “the Government continued during the reporting period to apply an article which allows it to expropriate properties in areas where the local non-Muslim population drops significantly or where the foundation is deemed to no longer perform function for which it was created,” says the report.

However, there no specific minimum threshold concerning the number of non-Muslim population but is left to the discretion of the General Directorate for Foundations regulating activities of non-Muslim religious groups and their affiliated institutions and property.

The report documents continued and disturbing trends in Turkey including growing numbers of religiously motivated assassinations, attacks, blackmails and threats against minorities, their harassment for actions of foreign state-actors, where that minority constitutes titular ethnic group or has influential communities. A vivid example of this can be the showcase arrest of two people who were reportedly targeting the Armenian Patriarch of Istanbul Archbishop Mesrop II Mutafyan as they fired guns in the air during a memorial service for Hrant Dink last February.

As a recent development Archbishop Mutafyan’s scheduled speech at Georgetown University in Washington September 20th was canceled after the Patriarch came under continued pressure from the government of Turkey to speak against the Armenian Genocide Resolution (H. Res. 106 in US Congress) and deny his people’s history.

Furthermore, the Turkish media falsely reported that the cancellation of the Patriarch’s speech was due to the pressure on the side of US Armenian organizations. The Turkish Daily news went on to quote a Turkish diplomat: “US Armenians apparently cannot even stand an Armenian speaking, if he does not support their position.”

In response to the statements Bryan Ardouny, Executive Director of the Armenian Assembly of America (www.aaainc.org) said: “We will continue to press for an affirmative vote on House Resolution 106, which enjoys the support of a majority in the House and resoundingly defeat the denialist efforts to distort the truth and intimidate those who stand for the truth.”

The State Deptartment report pays special attention to the importance of abolishing Article 301 of the Penal Code of Turkey, which penalizes the discussion of the Armenian Genocide for ‘insulting Turkishness.’ It reflects on the fact that this very article was used to prosecute Hrant Dink, editor of Agos Turkish-Armenian bilingual newspaper and human rights activist assassinated in Istanbul by an ultranationalist in January 2007 for speaking about the Armenian Genocide as well as Dink’s son Arat, who republished the former’s writings mentioning the Genocide.

“The fact that Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code is still on the books and is being used to prosecute Arat Dink serves as a chilling reminder of the atmosphere created in Turkey for Christian minorities,” Ardouny stated, in a press release issued by the Armenian Assembly of America.