A new regulation paving the way for elections in minority foundations was officially implemented after it was published in the Official Gazette on Saturday. The move aims to end the frustration of the foundations, which mostly represent the Christian and Jewish communities of the country.
“The Community Foundations Election Regulation” had been in the works for almost one decade after an earlier regulation was suspended for an update. The regulation will cater to some 167 community foundations run by Greek Orthodox, Armenian, Jewish, Syriac, Chaldean, Bulgarian, Georgian and Maronite communities who are often referred to as “minorities,” though the term is not politically correct in a country striving to end past injustices to the communities.
The elections to pick new board members of the foundations that own and operate the communities’ properties, including places of worships like churches and synagogues, will be held only in cities where the foundations are located. For most foundations, this is Istanbul, the country’s most populated city which has historically been home to the most diverse of non-Muslim communities. In Istanbul, electoral constituencies will be required to be divided, just as in parliamentary elections where political parties nominate separate candidates for different constituencies, on the city’s European and Asian sides.
The election issue has been a source of dispute for a long time, especially in the presence of apparent internal rifts with opponents and supporters of current members of foundations, a pillar of the dwindled number of minorities. The Directorate of Foundations have held consultations with representatives of foundations for a draft regulation earlier, after the government annulled the earlier regulation in 2013, promising a better, more comprehensive one.
Foundations of non-Muslim minorities have a legal status under the Lausanne Peace Treaty of 1923, which granted them equality before the law and freedom to establish and run “religious and social institutions.”
Turkey boosted its outreach to its minorities in the past two decades and mostly resolved the issue of minority foundation properties seized by the state and other entities in the past. Some 1,084 properties were returned to those foundations between 2003 and 2018, while 20 places of worship were restored and handed over to the communities.
A 1936 charter had paved the way for foundations to acquire properties but a 1974 court ruling reversed the process, enabling the state to seize the properties minorities acquired after 1936. Properties were mostly returned to their original owners, and in the absence of owners, they were acquired by the Treasury.
New regulations in the 2000s enacted in compliance with Turkey's harmonization packages for European Union membership, helped the return of properties to foundations.
Under the new regulation, every foundation will be entitled to hold elections for seven board members once every five years. For larger foundations, the number of board members will be limited to 11 at the most. Board member candidates are required to be older than 18, citizens of the Republic of Turkey, be a member of the community the foundation serves and a resident of the constituencies for at least six months before elections. The candidates will also be required not to have a criminal record and be literate. Any one candidate will be allowed to serve as board member of three different foundations at most, and every board will be required to limit the number of board members with kinship to two.
The foundations will be required to formally notify the local Directorate of Foundations at least 60 days before the election, with proper documents about the election. The foundations will be barred from running proceedings on ownership of properties from the day they decide to hold elections to after the elections. The communities will also be required to form an election organization body.
