ANKARA, Jan 10: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan came under fire on Monday for deriding a monument to friendship with neighbouring Armenia and ordering its destruction.

The country's culture minister sought to soothe the criticism, arguing that Mr Erdogan was misunderstood.

“We will never show disrespect to the work of any artist. We will never attempt to destroy and throw away the work of an artist,” Ertugrul Gunay told reporters.

On a visit to the eastern town of Kars on Sunday, Mr Erdogan slammed “a monstrosity... a weird thing erected” near the tomb of an Islamic scholar.

He urged the local mayor, a member of his ruling Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party, to demolish the monument, erected near the border with Armenia, and replace it with a park.

Gunay argued the prime minister did not target the statue but referred to the illegal construction of shanty houses in an area which is home to century-old Islamic monuments.

The 30-metre unfinished concrete statue, depicting two figures emerging from one human shape, was commissioned in 2006 to place emphasis on friendship between the two neighbours, long divided by bloody history and mistrust.

The sculptor, Mehmet Aksoy, defended his work, saying on NTV television its destruction would recall the demolition by the Taliban of ancient Buddhist statues in Afghanistans Bamiyan valley in 2001 that stunned the world.

Government opponents denounced Erdogan's comments, with former culture minister Ercan Karakas saying they were a “shame” and that “the sculpture is neither strange nor ugly”. Veteran columnist Tarhan Erdem warned that the outburst would deal a blow to th epremier's democratic credentials and urged the prime minister to retract his remarks. —AFP

Opinion

Editorial

Anti-women state
Updated 25 Nov, 2024

Anti-women state

GLOBALLY, women are tormented by the worst tools of exploitation: rape, sexual abuse, GBV, IPV, and more are among...
IT sector concerns
25 Nov, 2024

IT sector concerns

PRIME Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s ambitious plan to increase Pakistan’s IT exports from $3.2bn to $25bn in the ...
Israel’s war crimes
25 Nov, 2024

Israel’s war crimes

WHILE some powerful states are shielding Israel from censure, the court of global opinion is quite clear: there is...
Short-changed?
Updated 24 Nov, 2024

Short-changed?

As nations continue to argue, the international community must recognise that climate finance is not merely about numbers.
Overblown ‘threat’
24 Nov, 2024

Overblown ‘threat’

ON the eve of the PTI’s ‘do or die’ protest in the federal capital, there seemed to be little evidence of the...
Exclusive politics
24 Nov, 2024

Exclusive politics

THERE has been a gradual erasure of the voices of most marginalised groups from Pakistan’s mainstream political...