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Watch video “Turkish government atrocity against Women’s” they took Armenian children and turn them in to Turkish child production, A story of 90 year old grandmother fearful telling her children that she was Armenian
Image taken from Ambassador Morgenthau’s Story.
Against the backdrop of Turkish official denialism, distortion, and propaganda stunt looms the larger decay of a state rooted in organized forgetting.
The will to truth is cowed by pressure of numerous kinds, reasons of state on the one hand, economic necessities on the other, and, not least, the pure careerism of intellectuals who put their expertise in the service of power as a matter of course. When governments and professional elites find reward in the sophistries of might makes right, truth is bound to suffer.”
–Terrence Des Pres
Repentant or emboldened through a hundred long years of denial, the Turkish statehood stands at a critical juncture of its historical past, present, and future. The Armenian Genocide and the Great National Dispossession of the Armenian people from their homeland will ultimately determine its decent place in the family of civilized nations. Recognition and repentance, along with elimination of dire consequences, is the right way forward for the Turkish government.
Only a month ahead of the April 24 Centennial of the Armenian Genocide, the Republic of Armenia, together with Diaspora Armenians from many far-flung corners of the world, brings together the vestiges of enduring historical memory and remembrance on human suffering, extermination and resurgence to denounce past inhumanities and prevent future ones. Unbroken in spirit against this unprecedented crime, the message they bring to the fore of international agenda stretches far beyond the tragedy of a single nation to embrace the whole humanity.
Against the backdrop of Turkish official denialism, distortion, and propaganda stunt – as the commemoration of Gallipoli landings staged by the Turkish government on April 24 demonstrate – looms the larger decay of a state rooted in organized forgetting and long-enforced oblivion. Not only does the strenuous denial of the Armenian Genocide by the Turkish government constitute a form of renewed aggression that should be condemned and outlawed in its own right, but it also forecloses the mere opportunity for many decent men and women in Turkey to come to grips with their own history.
Armenians are marched to a nearby prison in Mezireh
Despite the vast amount of evidence that points to centrally planned and systematically orchestrated genocide against the Armenian people – the testimony of survivors, documentary evidence, official archives, and the reports of diplomats – the denial of Armenian genocide by successive regimes in Turkey has proceeded from 1915 to the present. Among the scores of articles available in the archives of the New York Times, one featured on February 23, 1916 presents the reflections of Lord Bryce, the head of British delegation to the Anglo-French Parliamentary conference, on Turkish atrocities committed against Armenians. It reads in part: “The cause of Armenians is especially dear to me. There is no people in the world which has suffered more. It has been a victim not of religious fanaticism, but of cold-blooded, premeditated hatred on the part of the brigands who term themselves the Turkish Government and who do not intend to permit the existence of any national vitality except in their own element.”
In an attempt to assassinate the entire civilization and culture, the Ottoman Turkish government unleashed the deportation of Armenian people to the arid deserts of Syria that would come to be known as death marches of men, women and children, with many dying along the way of exhaustion and starvation. The American ambassador Henry Morgenthau would later write in his memoirs: “When the Turkish authorities gave the orders for these deportations, they were merely giving the death warrant to a whole race; they understood this well, and in their conversations with me, they made no particular attempt to conceal the fact.”
Various perspectives on denial can be brought to bear on the form and content of Turkish attempts to transplant a benign political image around the world; what unites them together, however, is the state-sponsored struggle to diminish, disguise and consign to oblivion the memory of race extermination behind their actions in whatever way possible – a struggle of forgetting against memory.
Regardless of the state of play on the ground in the Middle East or elsewhere and the ensuing geopolitical significance allegedly attributed to Turkey in world affairs, it is crystal clear that the only enduring strength, authority and leadership that a country seeks to obtain in international arena proceeds along the principles of morality and justice. Unwillingness to embrace this route is an attribute of politicians who think in short timelines.
There are no “smart denials” on the face of justice, irrespective of the strategies and techniques the Turkish authorities choose to concoct behind the sealed borders and closed doors. Denials are either short-or long-lived; but they never mature into reality. Nor does the known fade into the unknown – no matter how intensely the hundred shades of distortion and denial envelop the truth – and those who have attempted it have themselves ended up in the dustbin of history. To bind the country to the same path of government-backed denial is an expression of no strategy, no goals, and no vision for its future. It is a sign of moral decay.
Source: Foreign policy journal
Grigor Boyakhchyan holds a Master’s Degree in International Security Studies (ISS) from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University. He currently serves as Head of Foreign Relations Department of the Center for Information and Analytical Studies under the Government of the Republic of Armenia. Prior to service, he taught a full-time course on International Security Challenges for Master’s Degree students at Yerevan State University. He may be reached at grigorboyakhchyan@yahoo.com.
Witness or accomplice? At a congress in Berlin, historians have been debating Germany’s role in the genocide of Armenians 100 years ago. New findings show that Germany’s complicity is greater than previously assumed.
In the German Reichstag on September 29, 1916, the diplomat Gottlieb von Jagow had to give parliament an account of the terrible events in Turkey, then the Ottoman Empire. Report DW
It was about mass displacement and executions taking place in the eastern region of Anatolia. The German Empire was a colonial power there at the time and also an ally of the Ottoman government, which had previously initiated a mass persecution of Christian Armenians before the onset of World War I. “We did everything we could,” stated Jagow in defense of Germany’s passivity.
This silent acquiescence toward the mass murders has been the subject of the International Historians Congress in Berlin.
Historians see the German Empire’s involvement in the deportation of Armenians as a proven fact. However, the part the Germans played is still not clear. Were they mere witnesses, or were they actually accomplices?
Depending on estimates, 300,000 to 1.5 million Armenians were murdered by the Turks. and refer to it as genocide. Yet in modern-day Turkey, the state that replaced the Ottoman Empire, the human suffering of that era is still officially seen as “a war–related dislocation and security measure.” The number of victims is still a matter of dispute in Turkey, making reconciliation between Turkey and Armenia difficult.
The 160 historians in Berlin were focused on Germany’s complicity in the Armenians’ suffering. According to the Armenian historian Ashot Hayruni from the State University of Yerevan, the Germans are seen as accomplices because of their silence and cold indifference.
The German government just stood by and watched as the young Turkish government expelled Armenians from Turkey to the deserts of Mesopotamia, a region now in modern-day Iraq, Kuwait and Syria. And Germans claimed that they did not want to interfere, even though they were very well-informed.
Historian Christin Pschichholz from the University of Potsam has no doubts. After having read files at the German Foreign Ministry, she concludes that, “the German government had extensive information about the destructive policies regarding the Armenian population in the Ottoman Empire. Death marches, executions and forced labor: German diplomats painstakingly took note of everything happening around them at that time.
Historical witnesses were quite aware of the atrocities, as illustrated by a dispatch sent on July 7, 1915 by the German Ambassador in Constantinople (now Istanbul) to the Imperial Chancellor. It said, “it is the declared intention of the government [meaning the Turkish government] to destroy the Armenian race in the Turkish Empire.”
Historian Rolf Holsfeld at Lepsiushaus, a highly regarded research institute in Potsdam, says, “the statement that genocide took place on Ottoman territory in 1915 and 1916 has been officially known to the German government for over 100 years. ”
A German military mission was posted to the Ottoman Empire at the time of the genocide
The way Germany handles the subject of the Armenian genocide does not directly reflect on Germany’s complicity at that time. German government officials have always avoided using the word genocide when speaking of Armenia. Instead, they speak of massacre and dislocation.
In February 2015, the Linkspartei, German’s far-left party, asked parliament about the use of terms regarding the persecuted Armenians in Turkey and the government decided to continue using the same terminology. The reason given was that it did not want to jeopardize Turkish-Armenian reconciliation. The German government’s policy: categorizations should be left to academia.
Armenia, together with more than 20 other countries, and the majority of the historians at the Berlin convention have classified the events as genocide, in accordance with the UN Genocide Convention of 1948.
About a year ago, the former Premier and now President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, broke the decade-old silence of Turkish officials on this subject. He apologized to the victims and their descendants and spoke of the “inhuman consequences” of the Armenians’ expulsion. He did not speak of genocide.
Former East German civil rights activist and former member of parliament for the Social Democrats, Markus Meckel, was in the Bundestag when the Armenian issue was first discussed 10 years ago.
Even then, no resolution regarding Turkey could be adopted if it contained the word genocide. After a great deal of discussion, an ensuing paper stated that the Germans apologized for the “inglorious role” of the German Empire. It was not possible to say more. Even in communism, said Meckel, history was defined by politics.
Yet Germany could send an important political signal by recognizing the suffering of the Armenian people as genocide. He says, “Anyone who does not use this term is basically giving the suffering and the catastrophe a lesser meaning.”
Historian Ashot Hayruni from the State University of Yerevan thinks it is the German government’s obligation and says, “It is important that the German government adopts a decision in which the genocide is recognized and condemned as such.”
To Yerevan with a small German delegation
According to DW sources, the German parliament plans to remember the victims of the Armenian genocide with a debate. But there is little cause to believe that anything will change in an argument about remembrance culture.
Quite the contrary: now there is a dispute as to who will represent Germany at the main memorial service in Armenia on the 100th anniversary of the genocide on April 24 this year. The expulsion of the ethnic group began at Istanbul’s Haydarpasa station on April 24, 2015.
Until now, the German Foreign Ministry claims that it is still checking to see who will officially represent Germany in the Armenian capital.
Insiders are expecting that Germany’s reticence on this issue will be underscored by the absence of high-level politicians. It is possible that only the German ambassador will attend the service, whereas France will be represented by the president himself, Francois Hollande. Historian Jürgen Gottschlich has called this ‘scandalous.’
Carson Mayore scraps plan for monument to Ataturk
Carson Mayor Jim Dear, who favored erecting a statue in the city of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the first president of the Turkish Republic, bowed to public pressure and voted against the tribute to the leader connected to the 1915 Armenian Genocide. Dear received a $3,000 campaign contribution from the Turkish Coalition of California. (File photo by Robert Casillas/Daily Breeze)
Hundreds of protesters crowded Carson City Hall late Tuesday, calling Mayor Jim Dear’s plan to install a Civic Center monument to a man they hold responsible for the massacre of more than 1 million Armenians an affront to human rights.
Dear hatched the proposal with members of the Turkish community, who had already commissioned designs for the statue of the first president of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. The mayor wanted to add the piece to the city’s International Sculpture Garden.
Dear, who accepted a $3,000 campaign contribution from the Turkish community last month, said he intended the garden on the grounds of Carson City Hall to be an artistic nod to world peace and democracy. City officials have sought sculpture donations of world leaders, and the Los Angeles Turkish American Association was excited to participate.
But before the City Council could give the project its blessing Tuesday night, furious protesters said it would be akin to erecting a statue of Adolf Hitler.
Glendale Mayor Zareh Sinanyan told council members he was shocked they would even consider such an offensive idea.
“Approximately half of Glendale residents are Armenian-American and survivors of the Armenian genocide,” Sinanyan said. “My namesake was born 80 kilometers outside of Constantinople and subjected to the horrible genocide of 1915 but managed to survive. That’s the only reason I’m here tonight.
“Don’t accept this gift.”
Extra Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies attended the meeting to maintain peace between the two groups, which alternately erupted in angry outbursts throughout the discussion. Dear and Councilman Albert Robles, who had supported the plans, backpedaled during the meeting and the idea ultimately was scrapped on a unanimous vote.
“I think the International Sculpture Garden, which was your idea Mayor Dear, is a great idea,” Robles said. “But the purpose of the garden was to bring positive and noteworthy coverage to the city of Carson. Not the type of coverage we’re receiving today, which is controversial and not positive.”
Representatives of the Turkish community argued passionately in favor of the monument, which was to consist of a series of nine plaques on pedestals lauding Ataturk, a man they likened to George Washington, as the founder of modern Turkey. It was to be the second installment in the International Sculpture Garden. Dear proposed the garden in 2010, and it currently has one statue — donated by the Republic of the Philippines — of Dr. Jose P. Rizal, a Filipino national hero.
Jack Hadjinian, the mayor of Montebello, told the council that Ataturk was responsible for killing several of his family members.
“How could you entertain the idea of erecting a monument of a man responsible for the decimation of my family?” Hadjinian asked. “It’s an insult to propose this in the city of Carson. I’m the great-grandchild of a genocide victim and the grandson of a genocide survivor.”
The government of Turkey denies that the systematic extermination of Armenians took place beginning in 1915, though leading historians call it one of the world’s first modern genocides.
At points during Tuesday’s meeting, Dear stopped to lecture the rowdy audience.
“If you have to heckle the speaker because you can’t resist it, then go outside and look at the monitor and heckle the monitor,” Dear told vocal audience members. “You will be ejected from this room if you argue with me.”
Raife Gulru Gezer, the consul general of Turkey in Los Angeles, pleaded with council members to accept the statue of Ataturk, whom she called “a great man, the father of modern Turkey.” She quoted Presidents Bill Clinton and John F. Kennedy praising the leader.
A representative of the Los Angeles Turkish American Association, which helped fund the statue, told council members that Ataturk changed the course of the country from one of oppression to a democratic republic.
Under the Ottoman Empire “I could have been in hijab with no power, the fourth wife of a man, but the republic’s reforms gave me a life where I could be successful,” said the woman, who did not spell her name. “Should we hold (Ataturk) responsible for everything that went wrong in the world? He was on the cover of Time magazine three or four times.
“When you start with the ashes of an empire, you don’t become great in one day. The reforms he made set the foundation for a great society that I grew up in and that I’m totally indebted with, and that’s why I’m working on this project day and night and putting my money where my mouth is.”
Dear, who accepted the campaign donation from the Turkish Coalition of California political action committee, ultimately bowed to the pressure and joined his colleagues in rejecting the statue.
But the mayor, who will be leaving office soon to become city clerk, the position he captured in Tuesday’s election, said he would instead try to win support for a statue showing Armenian and Turkish figures shaking or holding hands.
“My dream is that future generations will be able to put their differences behind them,” Dear said, arguing for such a monument. “We have people in ISIS chopping off people’s heads. That’s the way of an uncivilized Middle Ages mentality. We have to move forward in life and teach our children that they have to get along.”
More than a dozen senior leaders of the al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front have been killed in two airstrikes by the Syrian army in the northwestern part of Syria.
The terrorist group reportedly said on social media on Thursday that its military chief, Abu Homam al-Shami, was killed in the attacks, the state-funded BBC reported.
Abu Musab Falastini, Abu Omar Kurdi, and Abu Baraa Ansari were three other leaders of the terrorist group killed in the attacks.
The airstrikes were reportedly conducted by the Syrian army in the al-Habit area of the Idlib Province.
A Middle Eastern security source, who was briefed by Syrian intelligence, said a senior Saudi operative in the group was also killed in the air raids, which took place in the town of Salqin and a nearby town in Idlib.
One of the attacks targeted a meeting of the terrorist group’s leaders and the other one targeted a military base of the group.
A spokesman for the US-led coalition, which is conducting airstrikes against what are said to be ISIL position in Syria and Iraq, said the coalition’s fighter jets were not involved.
“Within the last 24 hours, we have not conducted any airstrikes within 200 miles of the province of Idlib,” the spokesman said.
Al-Nusra Front, along with many other foreign-backed Takfiri groups, including the ISIL terrorist group, are operating against the government of the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Syria has been grappling with a deadly crisis since March 2011. The violence fueled by Takfiri groups has so far claimed the lives of 210,000 people, according to reports.
New figures show that over 76,000 people, including thousands of children, lost their lives in Syria last year.
source: presstv
This file photo shows members of the Takfiri ISIL militant group at an undisclosed location in Iraq.
The Takfiri ISIL militants have “bulldozed” the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud in the northern part of Iraq, Iraqi government officials say.
The Takfiri group “assaulted the historic city of Nimrud and bulldozed it with heavy vehicles,” read a post on an official Facebook page of the Iraqi Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities on Thursday.
The ISIL group released a video on February 26 showing its militants using sledgehammers and drills to smash ancient statues at the Ninawa museum in Mosul, which put on display Assyrian artifacts dating back to the 9th century B.C.
The Takfiri terrorists have already razed to the ground a number of mosques in Syria and Iraq, many of them dating back to the early years of the Islamic civilization. The terrorists have also destroyed tombs belonging to revered Shia and Sunni figures.
ISIL terrorists, who have already been persecuting minorities and people of various faiths, are also targeting artifacts and museums.
Officials in Mosul said in early February that the ISIL had burnt a precious collection of historic books and manuscripts in the Ninawa museum. Tens of thousands of priceless documents, some of them registered with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), were destroyed in flames.
Carson City Council Unanimously Rejects Ataturk Monument Measure
The Carson City Council unanimously votes to NOT pass the bill to erect a statue of Ataturk #TurkeyFailed
— AYF – Western US (@ayfwest) March 5, 2015
CARSON, Calif.—The City Council of City of Carson voted unanimously on Wednesday to reject a measure to erect a monument to Kemal Ataturk in the city, after lengthy debate during the regular city council session.
Hundreds opposing the measure, led by the Armenian Revolutionary Federation Western US Central Committee, Armenian National Committee of America-Western Region, the Armenian Youth Federation and the American Hellenic Council flocked to the Carson City Hall, where a capacity crowd in the council chamber spilled outside to protest the measure.
Speaking against the monument were Glendale Mayor Zareh Sinanian, Montebello Mayor Jack Hadjinian, Glendale City Clerk Ardashes “Ardy” Kassakhian, Professor Levon Marashlian and the Vice Chairman of the American Hellenic Council Aris Anagnos. Although there were only six speakers permitted per side, there were 298 speaker cards submitted in opposition to the monument and 101 in favor.
California State Assemblymembers submitted a letter in opposition to the monument, which was presented at the meeting by a representative of Assemblymember and former Carson City Councilman Mike Gipson, and co-signed by Assemblymembers Adrin Nazarian, Katcho Achadjian, Scott Wilk and Mike Gatto.
The Turkish Consul General of Los Angeles Raife Gulru Gezer was one of the six speaking in favor of the monument. Carson Mayor Jim Dear, who initiated the monument proposal, in the end changed his vote.
Armenian press, including Asbarez, was not allowed to enter the City Council chamber. However, CNN Turk and ABC7 were allowed to cover the proceedings from inside the chamber.
Asbarez will have detailed coverage of the meeting in later editions.
A scene from Tuesday’s session of the European People’s Party convention, with the Armenian delegation in the center
BRUSSELS—The Political Assembly of the European Political Party (EPP), the largest political group in the European Parliament, on Tuesday adopted a resolution condemning the Armenian Genocide, and calling on Turkey to recognize it.The resolution entitled ‘The Armenian Genocide, Turkish Responsibility, and European Values’ reaffirms EPP’s “recognition and condemnation of the Genocide and Great National Dispossession of the Armenian people on the eve of its 100th Anniversary on 24 April 2015”. The resolution emphasizes the incontrovertible evidence documented in the archives of several western states, including Germany, United Kingdom, USA, France, that the “Armenian Genocide… was perpetuated by the Young Turk Government in the final years of the Ottoman Empire.“ The resolution also criticizes the destruction of thousands of Armenian cultural monuments in Turkey.
The largest political group of the European Parliament calls on Turkey inter alia “to face history and finally recognize the ever-present reality of the Armenian Genocide”, “make restitution appropriate for a European country, including but not limited to ensuring a right of return of the Armenian people to, and a secure reconnection with, their national hearth…”
The President of the European Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy (EAFJD) Kaspar Karampetian said “we welcome the resolution adopted and we thank the European People’s Party and in particular President Joseph Daul for his support. EPP sister Armenian parties – Republican Party of Armenia, Rule of Law and Heritage – showed that the Armenian political parties are united in pursuing Armenian Genocide recognition in this centennial year.” “The other political groups of the European Parliament, as well as the Parliament as an institution, should show similar determination and courage, in condemning the Genocide and restoring historical justice,” concluded Karampetian.
Below is the text of the resolution.
Resolution adopted by the EPP Political Assembly ( 3rd March 2015) on “The Armenian Genocide and European Values”
The European People’s Party reaffirms its recognition and condemnation of the Genocide and Great National Dispossession of the Armenian people on the eve of its 100th Anniversary on 24 April 2015.
1. We condemn the genocidal acts against the Armenian people, planned and continuously perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire and various regimes of Turkey in 1894-1923, dispossession of the homeland, the massacres and ethnic cleansing aimed at the extermination of the Armenian population, the destruction of the Armenian heritage, as well as the denial of the Genocide, all attempts to avoid responsibility, to consign to oblivion the committed crimes and their consequences or to justify them, as a continuation of this crime and encouragement to commit new genocides.
2. We commemorate one-and-a-half million innocent victims of the Armenian Genocide in 1915 and bow in gratitude to those martyred and surviving heroes who struggled for their lives and human dignity. Moreover, we recognize, that the Genocide resulted in the death and dispossession not only of Armenian people but also extended to the Pontic Greeks and Assyrians peoples, and we commemorate them as well.
3. We join and strongly support the commitment of Armenia and the Armenian people to continue the international struggle for the prevention of genocides, the restoration of the rights of people subjected to genocide and the establishment of historical justice.
4. We invite Turkey, in the finest example of integrity and leadership proffered by the Federal Republic of post-war Germany, to face history and finally recognize the ever-present reality of the Armenian Genocide and its attendant dispossession, to seek redemption and make restitution appropriate for a European country, including but not limited to ensuring a right of return of the Armenian people to, and a secure reconnection with, their national hearth―all flowing from the fundamental imperative of achieving Reconciliation through the Truth.
5. We call upon the Government of Turkey to respect and realize fully the legal obligations which it has undertaken including those provisions which relate to the protection of cultural heritage and, in particular, to conduct in good faith an integrated inventory of Armenian and other cultural heritage destroyed or ruined during the past century, based thereon to develop a strategy of priority restoration of ancient and medieval capital cities, churches, schools, fortresses, cemeteries, and other treasures located in historic Western Armenia, and to render the aforementioned fully operational cultural and religious institutions.
6. We appeal to EU and CoE member states, international organizations, all people of good will, regardless of their ethnic origin and religious affiliation, to unite their efforts aimed at restoring historical justice and paying tribute to the memory of the victims of the Armenian Genocide.
7. Taking the foregoing into account, the European People’s Party invites Turkey to take the following measures pursuant to its international commitments and the European identity to which it aspires:
to recognize and condemn the Armenian Genocide committed by the Ottoman Empire, and to face its own history and memory through commemorating the victims of that heinous crime against humanity;
to provide a vision and an implementing plan of action worthy of a truly European Turkey, including a comprehensive resolution of issues relating to the freedom of expression and reference to the Genocide in state, society and educational institutions, as well as the repair of religious and other cultural sites a nd their return to the Armenian and other relevant communities;
to launch the long-awaited celebration of the Armenian national legacy based on a total Turkish-Armenian normalization anchored in the assumption of history, the pacific resolution of all outstanding matters, and a complete Europeanization of their relationship.
8. It also invites the European Union, its Commission, Council and Parliament, and the international community as a whole, in assessment of the honoring of commitments and obligations undertaken by Turkey, to accord continued attention to the recognition, restoration, and restitution of our shared heritage as herewith tendered, and hereafter officially to commemorate April 24 as a day to remember and condemn the Armenian Genocide and man’s inhumanity to man.
9. We express the hope that recognition and condemnation of the Armenian Genocide by Turkey will serve as a starting point for the historical reconciliation of the Armenian and Turkish peoples.
ISTANBUL – Doğan News Agency
symbolize Turkish-Armenian friendship
A court has ordered President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to pay 10,000 Turkish Liras to the artist responsible for a sculpture in the northeastern province of Kars, which he had demanded the removal of and described as a “monstrosity.”
During a Jan. 8, 2011 visit to Kars, then Prime Minister Erdoğan slammed the city’s new 35-meter-tall “Monument to Humanity,” created by sculptor Mehmet Aksoy.
An Istanbul court ruled on March 3 for Erdoğan to pay 10,000 liras in moral indemnities to Aksoy, partially accepting the 100,000 liras case Aksoy had filed against Erdoğan.
While Aksoy’s attorney defended their 100,000 liras case by saying that labeling the sculpture a “monstrosity” was an insult to Aksoy, Erdoğan’s attorney claimed that it was not as an insult, but rather a critique.
The sculpture debate entered Kars’ agenda in 2005 when then Mayor Naif Alibeyoğlu, of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), tasked Aksoy with building a monument that would symbolize Turkish-Armenian friendship. The project included two figures facing each other, with an open hand facing them.
Alibeyoğlu, however, decided in 2008 to switch ranks and join the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP). While the monument was still under construction that year, the Council of Monuments decided to stop its installation, arguing that the monument’s ground was actually a historical site. The monument was dismantled in the subsequent years, as its site was declared a protected area.