The European Court of Human Rights ruled Tuesday that Turkey violated the rights of two Greek Orthodox priests by removing them from the governing boards of Greek Orthodox minority foundations in Constantinople solely because they were clergymen.

In Mavrakis and Others v. Turkey, the court found a violation of Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights, protecting freedom of association, read in light of Article 9, protecting freedom of religion. The case concerned the late Rev. Niko Mavrakis and the Rev. Corc Kasapoğlu, both Turkish citizens and Greek Orthodox priests serving in Constantinople, who had been elected to boards connected with Greek Orthodox churches and the historic Fener Greek Boys’ High School foundation, but were later removed by Turkey’s General Directorate of Foundations.

The priests were elected in 2011 and 2012 to the boards of three minority community foundations: the Beşiktaş Cihannüma Greek Orthodox Church Foundation, the Aya Konstantin Greek Orthodox Church Foundation of Koca Mustafa Paşa Samatya, and the Fener Greek Boys’ High School Foundation. Turkish authorities argued that clergy could not sit on such boards, invoking a secular administrative structure and, in domestic proceedings, references to the Treaty of Lausanne. The European Court of Human Rights, however, found that the government had failed to identify any Turkish law barring clergy from serving on foundation boards, and noted that the relevant eligibility rules required Turkish citizenship, age, residence, education and the absence of certain criminal convictions, not lay status. It also found that the General Directorate of Foundations had no legal authority to remove “a duly elected person” because of his clerical status. The court concluded that the state interference could not be regarded as “prescribed by law.”

The decision carries significance beyond the modest damages ordered by the court. The judges emphasized that associations created to protect cultural or spiritual heritage, teach religion, or defend an ethnic or minority identity “play an essential role in the functioning of a democratic society.” They added that pluralism depends on the “genuine recognition and respect” of cultural, ethnic and religious diversity. For the Greek Orthodox community in Constantinople, whose foundations administer churches, schools, cemeteries and community property, the ruling affirms that religious identity cannot be used by the state as a bureaucratic pretext to narrow a minority community’s right to govern its own institutions.

The court awarded 2,000 euros in non-pecuniary damages to each applicant, with the award for Fr. Mavrakis, who died in August 2025 while the case was pending, to be paid to his widow and two sons.

Courthouse News, in its report on the case, quoted Mine Yildirim, senior adviser on Turkey at the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, who welcomed the ruling as “a clear example of the ‘arbitrary’ treatment of minorities in Turkey, particularly by state administration.” Claire Thomas, executive director of Minority Rights Group International, a London-based international human rights organization, told Courthouse News that religious minorities must be free to govern their own communities. “Religious minorities must be able to run their own communities — their churches, their foundations, their institutions, free from state interference,” she said.