Sis/Kozan circa 1919-1920 (Source: photograph by Father Bretocq, Archives départementales de l’Eure, Fonds Gabriel Bretocq)
On April 28, 2015, the Catholicosate of Cilicia filed a lawsuit to the Constitutional Court in Turkey requesting to regain ownership of its Church’s historic center in Sis.
The historic headquarters of the Church, which is located today in the city of Kozan, south-central Turkey, is a major Armenian Christian holy site. It includes the Catholicosate, the monastery and the cathedral of St. Sophia.
The lawsuit was brought forward by the Catholicosate of the Great House of Cilicia, located in Antelias, Lebanon.
Since 2012, His Holiness Aram I has presided over a committee of lawyers reflecting on the recuperation of the Holy Center in Sis where Armenians prayed for many centuries. The meetings resulted in the current day litigation, which was presented to the Turkish Constitutional Court.
Aram I said that in the case of a negative judgement by the court, they will appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.
On Wednesday April 29, a press conference took place at the National Press Club in Washington D.C, announcing the lawsuit. “The case that has been initiated before the Turkish Constitutional Court is only the first step in achieving justice, in achieving the return of this property,” said Payam Akhavan, the former UN prosecutor at the Hague and the lead international counsel for this case. “It is a unique opportunity for Turkey to begin to reckon with the crimes of the past, and to open a new chapter for Turkish-Armenian reconciliation,” he added.
Archbishop Oshagan Choloyan, prelate of the Armenian Apostolic Church of Eastern U.S. was among the speakers at the conference. He said, “We are demanding the right for our land, to go and worship our religion as we have done for thousands of years.” The Archbishop added, “I know that the land is ours, and I know that the land recognizes her master.”
The Armenian Church has been a vital part of Armenian identity and an important element in Armenian life throughout history. This is what Teny Pirri-Simonian, the senior advisor to the Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia, said at the press conference where she identified three important roles of the Armenian faith and Church. “Religion has been an important identity marker for us when we haven’t had our lands,” she said “secondly, religion and the Church have been a source of our spiritual and moral values,” lastly she added that “whenever we had no homeland, the Church took the national leadership of organizing our communities around the world.”
Pirri-Simonian said that she hopes to be able to pray in the Church’s historic center of Sis, which once belonged to the Armenian people.
Cem Sofuoglu, a Turkish human rights lawyer and the local counsel for the case, said that this is the first property case of this nature that is filed in Turkey. He also added that this is purely a property case, and it is unrelated to the recognition of the Armenian Genocide and deportations of 1915.
The Catholicosate was moved from Armenia to Cilicia in the 10th century, and in 1295 it was officially established in Sis, where it remained until 1921, and was recognized as an independent church under the Ottoman Empire. Following the Armenian Genocide of 1915, after the Armenian population of Sis was massacred and deported, the Ottoman authorities ordered Catholicos Sahak II Khabayan and the clergy to leave the premises. After moving through multiple cities in the Middle East, namely Jerusalem, Aleppo, Damascus and Cyprus, the Catholicosate settled in Antelias, Lebanon in 1930, where it remains until today. The Church in Sis, as well as other Christian holy sites in the Ottoman Empire, were pillaged and confiscated.
This lawsuit is not the first attempt for Armenians to preserve historic sites in Turkey.
The ancient Armenian Church of the Holy Cross on Akhtamar island located in Lake Van was renovated in 2005, followed by the Surp Giragos Church in Diyarbakir, which was completed in 2011. The main aim of this renovation is to reclaim the Armenian past and the struggle against material and symbolic dispossession, according to the Surp Sarkis Giragos Foundation.
More recently, a decision was made to demolish Armen Camp summer orphanage in the Tuzla District of Istanbul to build luxury homes. The summer camp, which was primarily for Armenian orphans, opened its doors in 1963. About 1,500 orphaned children, including Hrant Dink and his wife Raquel Dink, spent their summers at Armen Camp. In 1983, the camp was shut down after a decision by the Turkish government, and the land was returned to its former owner.
Turkish authorities have ordered to have the site empty by the end of May, 2015, in preparation for demolition. Turkish-Armenians have launched a petition against this decision to demolish the historic camp, but the outcome of these efforts is yet to be determined.
One of the most significant challenges that Armenians face when it comes to re-claiming property in current day Turkey, is the 2006 Turkish National Security law that bans access to registries of properties representing the Armenian past. Sofuoglu mentioned during the press conference that he was not allowed to access the registration records to determine how big the Sis Catholicosate property was.
-Lori Baitarian
