I 
113TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 4347 
To require the Secretary of State to provide an annual report to Congress 
regarding United States Government efforts to survey and secure the 
return, protection, and restoration of stolen, confiscated, or otherwise 
unreturned Christian properties in the Republic of Turkey and in those 
areas currently occupied by the Turkish military in northern Cyprus. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MARCH 28, 2014 
Mr. ROYCE (for himself and Mr. ENGEL) introduced the following bill; which 
was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs 
A BILL 
To require the Secretary of State to provide an annual 
report to Congress regarding United States Government 
efforts to survey and secure the return, protection, and 
restoration 
of 
stolen, 
confiscated, 
or 
otherwise 
unreturned Christian properties in the Republic of Tur-
key and in those areas currently occupied by the Turkish 
military in northern Cyprus. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Turkey Christian 
Churches Accountability Act’’. 
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SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) United States diplomatic leadership contrib-
utes meaningfully and materially to the protection 
internationally of religious minorities and their faith- 
based practices and places of worship. 
(2) The International Religious Freedom Act of 
1998 states that ‘‘It shall be the policy of the United 
States to condemn violations of religious freedom, 
and to promote, and to assist other governments in 
the promotion of, the fundamental right to freedom 
of religion.’’. 
(3) The House of Representatives, when it 
adopted House Resolution 306 on December 13, 
2011, called on the Secretary of State, in all official 
contacts with Turkish leaders, to urge Turkey to 
‘‘allow the rightful church and lay owners of Chris-
tian church properties, without hindrance or restric-
tion, to organize and administer prayer services, reli-
gious education, clerical training, appointments, and 
succession’’, and to ‘‘return to their rightful owners 
all Christian churches and other places of worship, 
monasteries, schools, hospitals, monuments, relics, 
holy sites, and other religious properties, including 
movable properties, such as artwork, manuscripts, 
vestments, vessels, and other artifacts’’. 
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nities in these areas, as a vast majority of Christian 
holy sites continue to be held by the Turkish Gov-
ernment or by third parties. 
(8) On April 24, 2013, Catholicos Karekin II 
and Catholicos Aram I, spiritual leaders of the mil-
lions of Christian Armenian faithful in Armenia and 
the Diaspora, noted that Turkey continued to un-
justly ‘‘[retain] confiscated church estates and prop-
erties, and religious and cultural treasures of the Ar-
menian people’’, and called on Turkey ‘‘[t]o imme-
diately return the Armenian churches, monasteries, 
church properties, and spiritual and cultural treas-
ures, to the Armenian people as their rightful 
owner’’. 
(9) The boundaries of Turkey encompass sig-
nificant historic Christian lands, including the bib-
lical lands of Armenia (present-day Anatolia), home 
to many of early Christianity’s pivotal events and 
holy sites, such as Mount Ararat, the location cited 
in the Bible as the landing place of Noah’s Ark. 
(10) These ancient territories were for thou-
sands of years home to a large, indigenous Christian 
population, but, because of years of repressive Turk-
ish Government policies, historic atrocities, and bru-
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tal persecution, today Christians constitute less than 
one percent of Turkey’s population. 
(11) As a result of the Turkish Government’s 
invasion of the northern area of the Republic of Cy-
prus on July 20, 1974, and the Turkish military’s 
continued illegal and discriminatory occupation of 
portions of this sovereign state, the future and very 
existence of Greek Cypriot, Maronite, and Armenian 
communities are now in grave jeopardy. 
(12) Under the Turkish occupation of northern 
Cyprus, freedom of worship has been severely re-
stricted, access to religious sites blocked, religious 
sites systematically destroyed, and a large number of 
religious and archaeological objects illegally con-
fiscated or stolen. 
(13) The United States Commission on Inter-
national Religious Freedom, in its 2012 annual re-
port, criticized ‘‘the Turkish government’s system-
atic and egregious limitations on the freedom of reli-
gion’’, and warned that ‘‘[l]ongstanding policies con-
tinue to threaten the survivability and viability of 
minority religious communities in Turkey’’. 
(14) Christian minorities in Turkey continue to 
face discrimination, prohibitions on the training and 
succession of clergy, and violent attacks, which have 
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at times resulted in lenient sentencing, including the 
reduced sentence for the murderer of the Catholic 
Church’s head bishop in Turkey, Luigi Padovese, in 
June 2010, or delayed justice, including the unre-
solved torture and murder, in April 2007, of three 
employees of a Protestant Bible publishing house in 
Malatya, Turkey. 
(15) The Government of Turkey, in contraven-
tion of its international legal obligations, refuses to 
recognize the 2,000-year-old Sacred See of the Ecu-
menical Patriarchate’s international status, has con-
fiscated the large majority of the assets and prop-
erties of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, Greek cul-
tural and educational foundations, maintains that 
candidates for the position of Ecumenical Patriarch 
must be Turkish citizens, and continues to refuse to 
reopen the Theological School at Halki, thus imped-
ing training and succession for the Greek Orthodox 
clergy in Turkey. 
(16) The Government of Turkey, in contraven-
tion of its international legal obligations, continues 
to place substantial restrictions and other limitations 
upon the Armenian Patriarchate’s right to train and 
educate clergy and select and install successors with-
out government interference. 
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(17) Religious freedom is an essential corner-
stone of democracy that promotes respect for indi-
vidual liberty, which contributes to greater stability, 
and is therefore a priority value for the United 
States to promote in its engagement with other 
countries. 
SEC. 3. REPORT REQUIREMENTS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days after the 
date of the enactment of this Act and annually thereafter 
until 2021, the Secretary of State shall submit to the 
Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representa-
tives and the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Sen-
ate a report on the status and return of stolen, con-
fiscated, or otherwise unreturned Christian churches, 
places of worship, and other properties in or from the Re-
public of Turkey and in the areas of northern Cyprus oc-
cupied by the Turkish military that shall contain the fol-
lowing: 
(1) A comprehensive listing of all the Christian 
churches, places of worship, and other properties, 
such as monasteries, schools, hospitals, monuments, 
relics, holy sites, and other religious properties, in-
cluding movable properties, such as artwork, manu-
scripts, vestments, vessels, and other artifacts, in or 
from Turkey and in the territories of the Republic 
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of Cyprus under military occupation by Turkey that 
are claimed as stolen, confiscated, or otherwise 
wrongfully removed from the ownership of their 
rightful Christian church owners. 
(2) Description of all engagement over the pre-
vious year on this issue by officials of the Depart-
ment of State with representatives of the Republic 
of Turkey regarding the return to their rightful own-
ers of all Christian churches, places of worship, and 
other properties, such as monasteries, schools, hos-
pitals, monuments, relics, holy sites, and other reli-
gious properties, including movable properties, such 
as artwork, manuscripts, vestments, vessels, and 
other artifacts, both those located within Turkey’s 
borders and those under control of Turkish military 
forces in the occupied northern areas of Cyprus. 
(b) INCLUSION IN ANNUAL COUNTRY REPORTS ON 
HUMAN RIGHTS PRACTICES AND INTERNATIONAL RELI-
GIOUS FREEDOM REPORT.—The information required 
under subsection (a) shall be summarized in the annual 
Country Reports on Human Rights Practices and Inter-
national Religious Freedom Reports. 
Æ 
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