Athens News Agency: News in English, 08-03-12
CONTENTS
[01] Vakufs discussed in Ankara
[01] Vakufs discussed in Ankara
A foreign ministry spokesman on Wednesday clarified that last
Saturday's talks in Ankara between Greek Foreign Minister Dora
Bakoyannis and her Turkish counterpart Ali Babacan, among others,
briefly touched on recent legislation in Turkey concerning charitable
foundations -- the so-called vakufs-- as well as religious minorities'
foundations and related properties.
Spokesman George Koumoutsakos made the statement when queried by
reporters at his regular press briefing over Babacan's reference, after
the talks on Saturday, that the discussion had touched on the issue of
"minorities".
The spokesman said the talks are part of Athens' volition to exhaust
all opportunities for discussion with Ankara so that bilateral
relations continue to improve.
Koumoutsakos reminded that there is no structured dialogue, bilateral
committees or any other mechanism to discuss "minority issues", while
he reiterated that commitments assumed by the Turkish government
regarding human and minority rights -- as part of its European Union
course -- are not linked to Greece's policy vis-à-vis the Muslim minority in Thrace.
The issue of charitable foundations and minority rights in Turkey has
heightened sensitivity for Greece due to the fact that the once robust
ethnic Greek community of Istanbul and on the northeastern Aegean
islands of Imvros and Tenedos has been transformed into a tiny ethnic
Greek and Eastern Orthodox presence today.
Caption: ANA-MPA/EPA file photo of Greek Foreign Minister Dora
Bakoyannis (L) and Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan in Ankara.
|