Erdogan fined for ‘insulting’ Armenia peace statue

Erdogan fined for ‘insulting’ Armenia peace statue –

A court has ordered President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to pay 10,000 Turkish Lira (US$ 4,000) in compensation to an artist for calling his sculpture – meant to promote reconciliation between Turkey and Armenia – a “monstrosity”, reported Associated Press citing Turkey’s state-run news agency. 

Erdogan expressed his dislike in 2011 of Mehmet Aksoy’s giant “Monument to Humanity,” which was being erected in the eastern city of Kars, prompting local authorities there to dismantle it. Aksoy then sued Erdogan for “insult.”

The court reportedly ordered Erdogan to compensate Aksoy for the “mental anguish” caused.

The 2009 Armenian-Turkish normalization process stalled after Ankara set preconditions to Yerevan regarding a separate Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh.

Turkey also denies that the Ottoman-era massacres of 1.5 million Armenians constituted genocide.
Armenians will mark the 100th anniversary of the 1915 Genocide on April 24.