(unofficial translation)
T.C. BEYOGLU KARAR
2nd Police Court of Pera (Beyoglu)
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Decision issued 27.10.93
Subject [Dava]:
According to the petition lodged with our court, after the death of the Greek citizen Yavan Theodorides, his wife, his mother and his brothers and sisters received a deed of probate. After the death of the mother, Erini, they received a second deed of probate. Taking into account the secret decree of 1964, since Greeks in Turkey do not have a right of inheritance, we seek the annulment of the deed of probate which they received from the 9th Police Court of Constantinople, No. 1940/1139 and we also seek the annulment of the deed of probate which they received from the 7th Police Court, No. 1975/1335.
Reply [Cevap]:
The defence maintains: That the secret decree never took away the right of inheritance from Greek citizens. It prohibited sales, donations and exchange [trampa].
That not even God can ban rights of inheritance (this is a matter of blood, of kinship, which is not banned in any state by any law).
Even if we accept that the rights of inheritance of the Greeks are prohibited by the secret decree, this has been annulled, and with retrospective force, which is right and true.
Decision and argumentation
In the hearing, the State argued that Greeks do not have inheritance rights and sought the annulment of all the deeds of probate.
The 2nd Police Court on 17 March 1988 dismissed the case and accepted the inheritance rights of Greeks.
The State appealed, and the 2nd Appeal Court of Ankara annulled this decision of the Police Court.
On 13 May 1992, the Police Court again found in favour of the rights of inheritance of Greeks.
On a second appeal, the Appeal Court said that the owner of the property, Yovanis, died on 7 July 1939. At that time, Turkish citizens in Greece did not have a right of purchase, by virtue of the Greek law of 1938, No. 1366. Again in 1945, by Law No. 374, Greece persisted in this decision.
The dates of death of the joint heirs are 11 July 1974, 1 January 1977 and 5 February 1987.
On those dates, the Law of the Property Registry said in Article 35 that there was no reciprocity. For this reason, the issue must be investigated from this point of view, that is, as to whether there was reciprocity or not. The court accepted this view and asked the Ministry of Justice to investigate whether Article 35 of the Property Registry Code had force.
The Ministry of Justice was asked and it sought information from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The court asked the Ministry of Justice to confirm for us that on the dates of death of the Greeks Article 35 of the Property Registry Code was in force.
The Ministry of Justice asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in its communications of 18 May 1993, Nos 508 - 1452, maintains that the Greek Law dated 1945, No. 374 ...... on 31 July 1990, No. 1892. And in this law, with the exception of the frontiers and sea coasts, members of the European Community and Romii by descent were included in the right of purchasing real estate.
The action was brought before the 7th Police Court initially on 20 February 1976 and it accepted that the Greek Eirini Theodoridou died on 11 July 1974, that her estate consisted of three portions and that it passed to her children Vasileios, Theodoros and Magdalini.
And the deed of probate of the 9th Police Court accepts that Yovanis Theodoridis died on 8 July 1939 and his estated passed to his wife, Drosia, and his mother, Eirini, and to her children Vasileios, Theodoros and Magdalini. This decision was issued on 4 October 1940.
Vasileios Theodoridis died in 1977, Theodoros in 1954 and Magdalini in 1987. In the case of the son of Magdalini, one of these, reciprocity should not, in our opinion, be implemented, since he is a Turkish citizen. Since Greeks are included in the deed of probate and since Greece has restricted purchases and sales by Turkish subjects, we, taking into account Article 35 of the Property Registry, take the view that reciprocity is not verified. For this reason, we propose that the deeds of probate of the 9yh Police Court, No. 1940/1139, dated 4 October 1940, and the deed of probate of the 7th Police Court, file no. 1976/210 and file 1975/1335, dated 20 February 1976, should be annulled.
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