Lawsuit Against Turkey on Sis Catholicosate Return Still Ongoing
The legal case against the government of Turkey to return the Catholicosate of Sis is still ongoing, the Cilician Catholicosate, which initiated the lawsuit in 2015, announced in a statement.
The Catholicosate of the Great House of Cilicia in 2015 filed a lawsuit against the government of Turkey seeking the return of the Sis Catholicosate asset. The lawsuit was filed to coincide with the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide.
The Catholicosate had initially filed its lawsuit directly with the Constitutional Court of Turkey because the claim raised issues of historical property rights that lower courts would not have jurisdiction over. At the urging of the Justice Ministry, the Constitutional Court referred the lawsuit to a lower court.
The Catholicosate then appealed the ruling to the European Court of Human Rights in 2016. The European Court rejected the Catholicosate’s 900-page lawsuit in 2017, finding it inadmissible because it had not first exhausted all local legal remedies, such as the lower courts in Turkey.
Therefore, the Catholicosate re-filed its lawsuit in 2019, this time with a lower Turkish court in Kozan (Sis). After two postponements due to the coronavirus pandemic, a pre-trial hearing finally took place on March 30, 2021 in the Kozan Civil Litigation Court to decide whether a viable cause of action existed to proceed to trial.
In a statement published on Tuesday, the Cilician Catholicosate confirmed that the lawsuit filed against the Turkish state continues to move forward, emphasizing that the case is viewed as both a church and national cause and as a landmark legal step in the pursuit of Armenian claims.
According to the statement, the case has already gone through lower Turkish courts, where it was dismissed, and is currently under review by the Court of Cassation. The Catholicosate noted that the next stage will be an appeal to Turkey’s Constitutional Court, followed by an application to the European Court of Human Rights.
His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia brought together members of the legal team handling the Sis lawsuit, including Dr. Nora Bayrakdarian, Professor Teni Simonian, and attorney Cem Sofuoğlu. During the meeting, the previous stages of the legal process were reviewed and the forthcoming steps were outlined.
The Catholicosate of Cilicia settled in Sis, the former capital of the Cilician Kindgom, in1295, after moving from several places due to the political uncertainties in the region. In 1921, following the 1915 Genocide, the Ottoman authorities ordered Catholicos Sahak II Khabayan and the clergy to vacate the location within two days. The Catholicos and the clergy left the monastery in Sis, taking with them very few objects, such as the basin pot for the preparation of holy chrism (muron), some manuscripts and liturgical items. After moving between Jerusalem, Aleppo, Damascus and Cyprus, in 1930 the Catholicosate settled in Antelias.
