Armenian foundation ventures into real estate sector with Istanbul project

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

VERCİHAN ZİFLİOĞLU

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Istanbul’s Armenian community has ventured into the city’s booming property sector with the completion of Lotus Evleri, a luxury housing project whose foundations were laid four years ago by Patriarch Mesrop II.

The project was built on 11,250 acres of land on a ridge overlooking the Bosphorus. The land is the biggest piece of land owned by Istanbul’s Armenian community.

The Ortaköy Surp Asdvazsazsin Armenian Church Foundation handed over the land to a construction company in return for a portion of the apartments to be built.

The construction of Lotus Evleri was completed last year and tenants have been moving into the 200 luxury apartments for some time now.

Speaking to the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review, İskender Şahingöz, president of the foundation, said the community reclaimed the valuable land through intense efforts.

“This land was taken [from us] by the Treasury in 1973, just after the Bosphorus Bridge was built. The reason was national security. Then the land was assigned to the Defense Ministry,” Şahingöz said.

The foundation filed a lawsuit in 1996 against the state and won the land back. “This case was a first in the history of minority foundations,” Şahingöz said.

Jesus the fugitive

In Ottoman times, minority foundation property was registered under the names of Jesus Christ, Mary and the apostles to prevent inheritance disputes.

Later, however, the Treasury declared the owners of the land to be “fugitives” when it confiscated the land from the community, according to Şahingöz.

The foundation leader praised European Union adjustment laws and the Justice and Development Party, or AKP, government as keys to getting the land back.

“We were not even able to use our money as we wanted [in the old days],” he said. “Now we can use it as we like. The new regulations on minority foundations, though not enough, give us hope for the future.”

As foundation lands are notoriously mired in various ownership disputes in Turkey, finding a construction company for the project proved difficult.

The Lotus Evleri have 20 luxury blocks as well as shopping and sports complexes. Şahingöz declined to say how many apartments the foundation received in return for the land, but added that the rent revenues would be used to finance the expenditures of the Tarkmançazs school and church, which belong to the foundation, and to engage in new investments.