Image above: The authorities have promised to hand over the confiscated church buildings to the rightful owners (photo: World Watch Monitor).
Since 2016, there has been uncertainty over the ownership of a number of churches in southern Turkey. First, the state treasury took ownership of over a hundred church buildings in Mardin province, and then they were transferred to the Diyanet, the Directorate of Religious Affairs. These transactions were carried out without notifying the foundations that are the owners of the properties.
The uncertainty that the Christian denominations affected by the confiscations would never again have their ownership of the buildings recognized seemed justified for a time, but on 22 November, according to the Anatolian News Agency, Deputy Prime Minister Hakan Cavusoglu stated that the takeover of the more than 100 church properties had been a mistake and that ownership would be returned. The minister refrained from going into further details, except for a remark reported in the Armenian-Turkish media Agos (meaning "furrow") that the authorities "did not confiscate the properties but restored them."
Christian minority communities in Turkey express gratitude for the promise that church property taken over by the state will be returned to the Christian community in the country, but also ask for prayers that it will happen soon.
