A/55/280/Add.1 Property and Works since 10 September 1997. The Armenian Orthodox Church located at Kirikhan is a foundation and, like all foundations, it is required to elect an administrative board. Nevertheless, the foundation in question has not elected a board since 1991, and it has not responded to warnings from the General Directorate of Foundations. Following inquiries conducted on the subject, it was found that the community served by the foundation, which numbers 11 individuals, is not located in Kirikhan and the church is not used for worship. The code on foundations requires that if a foundation has in fact no beneficiaries, its management must be transferred to the General Directorate of Foundations (as explained earlier). If that foundation should succeed in electing an administrative board within five years, it may restore its prior status after complying with the necessary formalities. In Hatay there are 15 other churches, two synagogues and three Baha’i places of worship. 51. With respect to the heavy exodus of Christians from Turkey, it was said that this situation was related solely to socio-economic factors, in the context of immigration during the 1970s, and that it involved all Turks and did not result from any religious intolerance. It was claimed that any problems raised by members of minorities were false and were in fact intended to help them obtain refugee status in Europe. 52. With respect to Orthodox Greeks, it should be noted that many Greeks left voluntarily during the population exchanges occasioned by the Treaty of Lausanne and the Cyprus issue. The Mufti of Istanbul declared that the treatment of Greeks in Turkey was linked to that of Muslims in Greece. Finally, the authorities said that they were proud of the treatment accorded to Turkey’s non-Muslim minorities. 53. In response to the Special Rapporteur’s question about the status of minorities other than those recognized as covered by the Treaty of Lausanne, and in particular the Assyro-Chaldeans, the Minister of State for Human Rights declared categorically that these people had no problems to complain of. With respect to the arrests of Protestants in November 1999 at Izmir, the Minister of the Interior said that they were making unauthorized use of premises for religious purposes, and that the neighbours had complained, but that the public prosecutor had decided not to press charges but to issue a warning. In any case, the Minister of the Interior maintained, this was a simple 12 question of enforcing the law on the creation of places of worship. With respect to acts of desecration in Christian cemeteries and places of worship, as well as attacks against Christians, the Minister of the Interior qualified these as isolated acts, often motivated by theft. 54. With respect to the Alawis and the Muslim brotherhoods, the Minister of State for Human Rights and the Minister of Justice denied that they were facing any problem, noting that Turkey was founded on the principle of a single and indivisible republic and that no one had the right to call into question the social order, the Constitution and the principle of secularism. 55. With respect to the general situation regarding freedom of religion and belief, the Minister of State for Human Rights declared that Turkey was very proud and could serve as a model for other nations, and that it had no need for any lessons in this area, while the Minister of Justice suggested that his country was the most tolerant in the world when it came to freedom of religion. 2. Other authorities 56. The Deputy Mayor of Istanbul felt that there was no real religious problem in Turkey, particularly for minorities. He stated categorically that for 30 years no place of worship in Turkey had been desecrated or attacked. He maintained that any difficulties affecting Orthodox Greeks were most likely inspired by the Cyprus issue, which has set Greece against Turkey. He hoped that the international community would not interfere in Turkey’s internal affairs, and that it would concern itself instead with obvious religious problems in other countries. 57. The Vice President of the Parliamentary Human Rights Commission felt that if the brotherhoods and the Alawis were free to do as they please, the result could be divisive. B. Consultations with non-governmental organizations and independent Turkish experts 58. While the Turkish authorities stressed the tolerance that has prevailed in Turkey since the Ottoman Empire, Turkish non-governmental representatives (specializing in the area human rights)