U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has praised the improvements the Turkish government has secured in the field of religious freedoms in a letter sent to a prominent congressman, Hurriyet Daily News reports.
“I am encouraged by concrete steps the government of Turkey has taken over the past year to return properties to religious communities,” Clinton wrote in last week’s letter to congressman Howard Berman, a Democrat from California and the ranking Democrat in the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee. Berman was one of the sponsors of a bill on the return of properties confiscated from Christian communities, which was accepted last year. The U.S. Senate has also endorsed the resolution.
“In August 2011 the government issued a decree allowing religious minorities to apply to reclaim churches, synagogues, and other properties confiscated 75 years ago. Several properties have already been returned to the 24 religious minority foundations that have applied thus far,” Clinton wrote. “Separately, in November 2010, the government of Turkey returned the Buyukada orphanage to the Ecumenical Patriarchate, in line with a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights,” she wrote.
