Turkey’s Justice Ministry refuses to discuss return of Sis Catholicosate

PanARMENIAN.Net - Turkey’s Justice Ministry refused to discuss the issue of returning the Catholicosate of Sis to the Great House of Cilicia.

As the website of the Catholicosate reports, the Turkish Constitutional Court sought to learn the Ministry’s stance, which, however, demanded to reject the claim.

In response, the Catholicosate turned down the Ministry’s position as ungrounded and reiterated its previous claim of returning the Catholosate to its rightful owners.

The court’s verdict is expected.

The Cilician Catholicosate filed a lawsuit in the Turkish Constitutional Court on April 27, 2015, demanding the return of its historic seat in Sis, Kozan district of Turkey’s Adana province. The Cilician See’s former headquarters, established in 1293, was confiscated by the Turkish government in 1921, at the culmination of the Armenian Genocide.

Catholicos Aram I announced then that should the Turkish court reject the lawsuit, the Catholicosate intends to appeal the ruling to the European Court of Human Rights, which requires that all domestic legal remedies are exhausted before it considers appeals on cases filed against Council of Europe members states.