Ankara -- Assyrian Member of the Turkish Parliament for the Peoples' Equality and Democratic Party (Halklarin Esitlik ve Demokrasi Partisi, DEM Party) George Aryo raised the long-standing property grievances of the Assyrian people in Tur Abdin and surrounding regions on Monday during a 2025 Planning and Budget Committee meeting where the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry's budget was under review. MP George Aryo -- whose mandatory state-imposed surname is Aslan -- stated that the decades-old issue, particularly affecting Merde (Mardin), Sirnak, and Hakkari provinces, has worsened in recent years.

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Aryo explained that following land registration surveys in the early 2000s, numerous Assyrian properties were transferred to the state treasury or to the Forestry Directorate. Authorities justified these seizures by labeling the lands "uncultivated," "forest," or "barren." In many cases, properties that were legally registered through court rulings -- and for which owners had paid the required taxes -- were first transferred to the Treasury and later to the Housing Development Administration (TOKI). Some of these same properties are now being offered back to their original owners at exorbitant prices. This, Aryo stressed, is despite the fact that Assyrian families had used the lands for centuries, particularly for viticulture and agriculture, which formed the backbone of their livelihoods.

According to Aryo, these property disputes emerged because the Assyrian people were forced to abandon their lands and villages during more than 40 years of conflict in the region. Land surveys and registrations were carried out at a time when the vast majority of Assyrians were absent, living in displacement or diaspora, resulting in large-scale losses of ancestral property rights. Aryo added that parts of pastures, forests, and agricultural lands belonging to Assyrian villages were absorbed into the administrative boundaries of neighboring villages.

He described these actions as a severe "violation of property rights" committed by state institutions for a variety of motives, emphasizing the urgent need for rectification and legal accountability.

Long Pattern of Violations

The dispute over land ownership has also had a devastating impact on cultural heritage. Under the guise of "restoration," numerous historical and cultural sites have been destroyed, and many areas continue to face unresolved land conflicts. Buildings that should have been preserved have instead lost their original identity due to poorly considered interventions.

According to Aryo, some historic structures are deliberately left to collapse for profit. These practices reflect systematic neglect, and at times intentional disregard, for the cultural heritage of the Assyrian people. The same pattern affects Armenian, Greek, Kurdish, and Alevi communities. Aryo described these violations as a new form of pressure on these peoples--a form of racial and cultural discrimination targeting them and their churches.

Thousands of churches and monasteries across Turkey have been destroyed or left to deteriorate; some have been used as stables or storage rooms, while others have been converted into mosques.