Ecumenical Federa on of Constan nopolitans U.N. 16’th session of the Forum on Minority Issues Geneva, 30 November- 1 December 2023 Item 3: Legal and Structural Approaches to More Inclusive Socie es The Ecumenical Federa on of Constan nopolitans (EFECON) is the all-world union of the GreekOrthodox community of Istanbul whose interna onal status was recognized by the Lausanne Treaty of 1923 when its popula on was 125.000 members cons tu ng 20% of the popula on of Istanbul. Today this popula on is less than 2.000 people, predominantly elderly people while the popula on of Istanbul is 16 million. This enormous popula on deple on took place during the period of 1955-2003 due to the severe and con nuous viola ons of the Minority rights leading to massive expatria on. It is noteworthy to men on the two most serious viola ons. Firstly the global scale Pogrom of 6-7/9/1955 and secondly the mass scale deporta on of Minority members during the period of 1964-66. Furthermore, a system of legal and structural exclusion mechanisms set in place by the Special Minority Commission of the Government of Türkiye, a er its establishment by the Prime Minister’s o ce in 1962 and con nued its opera ons un l 2004 when the present Government of the Republic of Türkiye dissolved it. This Commission had superseding powers above legisla ve, juridical, and even execu ve authori es. The exclusion mechanisms were based on the ideological concept that non-Muslim minori es are “foreign ci zens” of the country. In 1974 the ruling of the Higher Appellate Court for the mass scale con sca on of the minority welfare founda on real estate proper es was based on this argument. The only way to prevent the complete banishment of the Greek-Orthodox minority of Istanbul is to take legal and structural measures to support the repatria on of young members of the expatriated minority. The prime responsibility here falls on the shoulders of Türkiye. This could be achieved through inclusive legisla ves and structural reforms. EFECON during the last 13 years has submi ed speci c proposals to the authori es of Türkiye along this direc on. ti ti ti ti ti ti ti ti ti ti ti ti ti fi ft ti ti ti ti ti ti ti ti ti ti ti ti ti ti ti ti ti ti fi ti ti tt tt ffi ti ti ti EFECON asks from the Republic of Türkiye to support urgently the REPATRIATION PROGRAM which was submi ed several mes during the past 10 years.