The Armenian community of Turkey is fighting to return the historic Armenian Sanassarian building, located near Istanbul’s Sirkeci station, to the community. The General Directorate of Foundations of Turkey had previously organized a tender to lease the Sanassarian building for 35 years.
The winning organization plans to renovate the building and turn it into a high-end hotel. Ali Elbeyoğlu, the lawyer representing the interests of the Armenian Patriarchate of Istanbul, the de facto owner of the building, objects, stating that the legal process for the return of the building has not yet been concluded, and that handing it over for operation at this stage is illegal.
The question of the ownership rights of the “Sanassarian Khan” has also found resonance within the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. Garo Paylan, an Armenian-origin deputy of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, has submitted a parliamentary question to the Minister of Culture and Tourism, Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, demanding an explanation as to why property belonging to the Armenian community has not been returned to its true owners for decades.
Tuma Çelik, Paylan’s party colleague, a deputy from the province of Mardin and of Assyrian ethnicity, also addressed the fate of the historic Armenian structure. He demanded that the company that has taken over the operation of the building renounce its plans and not become a party to injustice. The deputy called on the Turkish parliament to take the initiative and resolve, through legal arrangements, the long-standing property problems facing non-Islamic minority communities.
Earlier, the Armenian Patriarchate of Istanbul had also issued a statement, noting that it considers unacceptable the decision of the General Directorate of Foundations to lease the building before the conclusion of the legal process. The Patriarchate intends to continue its struggle consistently to recover its property.
The historic “Sanassarian Khan” was built in 1895 by the architect Hovsep Aznavour under the patronage of the wealthy Armenian philanthropist Mkrtich Sanassarian from Erzurum, for the educational needs of Armenian children. The building was later placed under the administration of the Armenian Patriarchate of Istanbul, but in the 1930s it was confiscated by the Turkish authorities. For many years, the Sanassarian building was used as the building of the Istanbul Security Directorate, and during military coups it was known as a “place of torture,” where revolutionaries were held.
In 2014, the Armenian Patriarchate of Istanbul initiated a legal process to recover the community-owned property. However, the first-instance civil court did not accept the case, after which the Patriarchate appealed to the Court of Cassation. In 2017, the court recognized the Sanassarian building as community property, but in February of last year, at the request of the General Directorate of Foundations, the court decision was again overturned, and the ownership right of the building was transferred to the Directorate. The representative of the Patriarchate’s interests has appealed this decision to the Constitutional Court.
