Turkey Returns Island Orphanage to Greek Orthodox Church
Turkey returned the title deed for a Greek boys’ orphanage to the head of the Greek Orthodox church today, complying with an order from the European Court of Human Rights.
The deed for the orphanage on the island of Heybeliada near Istanbul was given to Cem Murat Sofuoglu, a lawyer for the Istanbul-based patriarchate, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported.
The patriarchate, headed by orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I, lost control of the long-abandoned orphanage in a 2005 court decision, and had been fighting a legal battle since then to get it back, Sofuoglu told Anatolia.
To contact the reporter on this story: Benjamin Harvey in Ankara bharvey11@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Peter Hirschberg at phirschberg@bloomberg.net
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