Syriac monastery in Turkey court proceeding status
In a landmark decision, the local Midyat Court has reversed the initial decision taken on 29 August 2008 by the Turkish Land Registration Court, which had granted three surrounding villages more than 110 hectares of land originally owned by the Syrian Orthodox Monastery. Later court cases saw claims of more than 300 Hectares of land by the surrounding villages for this Boundary Line dispute – all of which have been rejected by the court.
As predicted by the Syriac Universal Alliance (SUA), the court did make a decision today and whilst the first verdict fell in the Monastery’s favor, there are still three (3) other open trials being contested in which the Mor Gabriel Monastery is involved.
Since the first appeal trial on 19 November 2008 and after six postponements, the court has finally decided that the initial decision taken by Land Registration State Officials in May 2008, who had redrafted the boundary lines, was based on illegal and baseless grounds. Hence the Judge today deemed all the maps, legal documents, witness accounts and other evidence put forward by the Monastery to be complete, convincing and conclusive. At the moment, the SUA is uncertain whether the surrounding villages or the State authority will appeal the decision of the Local Midyat Court.
The Syriac Monastery puts this historic victory down to the huge and continuous pressure from the international community, in particular from the European embassies, parliamentarians and media.
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