“Istanbul’s Armenian community has ventured into the city’s booming property sector with the completion of Lotus Evleri, a luxury housing project whose foundations were laid four years ago by Patriarch Mesrop II,” Hurriyet Daily News & Economic Review reports.

“The project was built on 45,500 square meters of land on a ridge overlooking the Bosphorus. The land is the biggest piece of land owned by Istanbul’s Armenian community.”

“The Ortakoy Surp Asdvazsazsin Armenian Church Foundation handed over the land to a construction company in return for a portion of the apartments to be built. The construction of Lotus Evleri was completed last year and tenants have been moving into the 200 luxury apartments for some time now,” the daily reads.

“This land was taken [from us] by the Treasury in 1973, just after the Bosphorus Bridge was built. The reason was national security. Then the land was assigned to the Defense Ministry,” president of the foundation Iskender Sahingoz said.

The foundation filed a lawsuit in 1996 against the state and won the land back. “This case was a first in the history of minority foundations,” he said.

“The Lotus Evleri has 20 luxury blocks as well as shopping and sports complexes. Sahingoz declined to say how many apartments the foundation received in return for the land, but added that the rent revenues would be used to finance the expenditures of the Armenian school and church, which belong to the foundation, and to engage in new investments,” the source says.

“In Ottoman times, minority foundation property was registered under the names of Jesus Christ, Mary and the apostles to prevent inheritance disputes,” the daily reports.