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Germany: Statue of Turkish Dictator Erdogan removed after protest from Wiesbaden residents

August 29, 2018 By administrator

http://gagrule.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Erdogan-statue-renoved.mp4

The confusing golden effigy of the Turkish president has been removed by the fire brigade in the western German city of Wiesbaden. It was put up without the knowledge of city officials, and was not generally welcomed.

The 4-meter (13-foot) statue of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had been erected in Wiesbaden on Monday much to the surprise and confusion of the residents of the southwestern German city.

The larger-than-life effigy installed in the city’s Platz der Deutschen Einheit (German Unity Square) depicts Erdogan with a raised right arm, a pose reminiscent of the famous statue of the late former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, which American forces tore down in 2003 during the Iraq invasion.

The statue was quickly covered in expletive-laden graffiti.

Local authorities said that as its security could no longer be guaranteed, the statue would be taken down. It was removed by the fire brigade late on Tuesday night and police put out a short video of the process:

It was an art installation, part of the Wiesbaden Biennale for Contemporary Art, but was erected without the knowledge of city officials, a Wiesbaden spokesperson told German news agency dpa on Tuesday. This year’s art festival is taking place under the motto “bad news.”

“We have received calls from a string of confused citizens — it is not clear to people that it is part of the Biennale,” the spokesperson said of the statue.

The local newspaper Wiesbadener Kurier reported that city authorities had authorized the statue, but didn’t know Erdogan would be the person depicted.

Statue prompts confrontation

Public broadcaster ZDF reported that the police had to “protect,” the statue from angry residents, as well as separate some Kurdish and Turkish Germans following a “fierce confrontation.”

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: statue, Turkish Dictator Erdogan

Philanthropist Kirk Kerkorian statue has unveiled in Gyumri,

June 25, 2018 By administrator

Kirk Kerkorian statue

Kirk Kerkorian statue

The statue of the National Hero of Armenia, philanthropist Kirk Kerkorian has unveiled in Gyumri, the second largest city of Armenia.

The Gyumri Council of Elders had decided to install a statue of the benefactor in December 2013.

Owing to Kerkorian’s the Lincy Foundation, about 3,000 apartments were built for homeless families in Gyumri.

The well-known American Armenian benefactor had passed away on June 16, 2015, aged 98.

 

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Kirk-Kerkorian, statue

Erdogan so deeply Islamized Turkey. Local man attacks Atatürk statue in Turkey’s southeast, says ‘no idol worshipping in Islam’

July 30, 2017 By administrator

Local man attacks Atatürk statueA local peddler attacked a statue of Atatürk in the Siverek district of the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa on July 30, saying that “idol worshipping had no place in Islam,” Doğan News Agency has reported.

The peddler, identified as Mehmet Malbora, climbed onto the pedestal of the statue in Siverek’s Cumhuriyet Square in the afternoon hours and began to damage it with a wooden sickle.

“There is no idol worshipping in Islam. Are those who protect the idol worshipping descendants of the Prophet?” he reportedly shouted.

Witnesses around the scene informed the police of the incident, and nearby district gendarmerie units also intervened to move Malbora, who was wearing a turban-like head covering, away from the statue.

Police then arrived at the scene and detained him, taking him to the district police headquarters for questioning.

July/30/2017

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: ataturk, attacks, Local man, statue, Turkey

Where Friendship Goes To Die: Turkey’s Razed Statue Of Humanit

October 25, 2016 By administrator

The two heads of the Statue Of Humanity lie in a municipal dump on the outskirts of Kars.

The two heads of the Statue Of Humanity lie in a municipal dump on the outskirts of Kars.

(RFE/RL)  It was intended as a gesture of friendship. But in 2011, a Turkish statue symbolizing reconciliation with Armenia was labeled a “monstrosity” by then-Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and torn down. Today, a visit by RFE/RL to the eastern Turkish city of Kars reveals the statue dismantled and dumped among rusting vehicles 50 kilometers from the closed border with Armenia.

In 2011, when the 30-meter statue stood mostly completed on a hilltop above Kars, there was fragile hope that Turkey and Armenia were on a path to reconciliation. The two had been hostile neighbors since mass killings that began in 1915 under the Ottoman authorities. Armenia and dozens of other governments and parliaments refer to the well-documented massacre, in which more than 1 million Armenians were killed, as genocide. Turkey, however, dismisses the word and stresses the turmoil within the Ottoman Empire during World War I, in which “people of all religions and ethnicities lost their lives.” In 2008, Erdogan made Turkey’s official stance bluntly clear when he announced, “We did not commit a crime, therefore we do not need to apologize.”

But there was some cause for optimism. In 2005, an Armenian church in the Turkish city of Van was restored. Then, in 2009, Armenia’s president attended a soccer match in Turkey. They were small but emblematic steps for two bitter neighbors whose closed border has stifled trade in one of the poorest regions of Turkey.

n 2006, Naif Alibeyoglu, then mayor of Kars, told visiting anthropologist Oguz Alyanak that the Statue of Humanity that he had commissioned was “his dream.” The monument was to depict two halves of a human figure, each extending a hand toward the other: a symbol that Alibeyoglu said would bring together the “brothers and sisters” of Armenia and Turkey after decades of rancor over the mass killings.

Turkish artist Mehmet Aksoy, whose family is of Armenian descent, was set to create the monument. But, as he explained to RFE/RL by telephone, while he oversaw the statue’s block-by-block construction, there were three forces brewing into a storm that would soon destroy his work. “First, the very religious consider any statue idolatry and un-Islamic,” he said. “Second, it was close to the elections and the AKP [Erdogan’s ruling Justice And Development Party] wanted to appeal to nationalist and Islamist voters. Finally, the Azeris” — whose country is locked in a territorial dispute with Armenia — “and their president were apparently upset about the statue; [Azerbaijani President Ilham] Aliyev apparently called Erdogan personally and asked that he remove it.”

On April 26, 2011, Aksoy watched demolition workers slicing into the concrete necks of his statue with a diamond-tipped saw — a sight Aksoy described as “like watching my children being beheaded.” But tragedy soon slipped into a complex farce after Aksoy sued Erdogan over his use of the word “monstrosity” to describe the monument. Aksoy won the case and was awarded around $3,800 but, as he told RFE/RL, “I didn’t want to put this dirty money into my art, back into my stone. So I spent it. I decided I would spend this unclean money on a party with friends.”

But by publicly describing the money as “dirty,” Aksoy raised the ire of the famously litigious Erdogan, who was by then president. In 2015, Erdogan sued Aksoy for allegedly implying his earnings were illegitimate. The case is ongoing.

In Kars, few locals realize the slabs of concrete, guarded by a motley collection of stray dogs on the outskirts of town, was once a symbol of hope for the small movement within Turkey that seeks reconciliation with Armenia. When shown RFE/RL’s photographs of the statue’s final resting place, Alyanak described the images as “heartbreaking, though heartbreak has become a feeling some of us in Turkey have gotten used to lately.”

Aksoy knows about the scruffy resting place of his broken statue but is unfazed by what he sees as a temporary indignity. Through yet another pending court case, this one lodged with the European Court of Human Rights, he hopes to win the right to reconstruct the statue. “If I win that case I will rebuild my statue piece by piece, in exactly the same place it was before.”

With contributions by Abbas Djavadi

Amos Chapple

Amos Chapple is a New Zealand photojournalist with a particular interest in the former U.S.S.R. For story ideas, write to him at amos.chapple@gmail.com

Filed Under: Articles, Genocide Tagged With: Armenian, friendship, statue, Turkish

Crimea honors Russian soldiers with statue

June 12, 2016 By administrator

crimea russiaCrimean officials have unveiled a statue of an armed soldier in celebration of Russian troops that took control of the peninsula from Ukraine. Governor Sergey Aksyonov pledged to keep developing the troops’ “brand.”

The monument marks the “strength, calm, confidence and politeness of our Russian soldiers,” said Moscow envoy Oleg Belaventsev at the Simferopol ceremony.

Crimean officials unveiled the sculpture one day ahead of Russia Day on Sunday. It shows a serviceman with a Kalashnikov, a little girl giving him flowers, and a cat rubbing against his legs.

The bronze statue celebrates the 2014 annexation of Crimea, when unmarked Russian soldiers appeared on the peninsula ahead of a vote to join Russia. Local residents dubbed them “polite people” due to their reserved demeanor.

The mostly peaceful annexation of the region served as a prelude to the violent conflict in eastern Ukraine. Some 9,400 people have died during the 26-month conflict in Ukraine.

A Russian soldier who took part in the takeover also posed for the statue in downtown Simferopol, sculptor Salavat Shcherbakov told the AFP news agency.

The cat, according to the sculptor, shows “that peaceful life has not been interrupted.”

“There was one aim: to defend people, so there was no bloodshed,” he said of the soldiers.

Crimean leader Sergey Aksyonov expressed his belief that the monument would become popular among residents and tourists.

“These soldiers have created the image of ‘polite people’ so now we have our very own Crimean brand,” he said, according to “Noviy Krim” newspaper.

Aksyonov also vowed to keep developing the brand on the peninsula.

The statue was funded by private donations, and cost around five million rubles ($76,500 or 68,000 euros) to create and install, according to the sculptor.

dj/sms (AFP, dpa, Interfax)

"Эти парни проявили героизм и ровно и вежливо обеспечили мир в Крыму"
В Симферополе открыли памятник вежливым людям pic.twitter.com/JgaQmhtKF6

— Дмитрий Смирнов (@dimsmirnov175) June 11, 2016

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Crimea, honors, Russia, soldiers, statue

The Carson City Council unanimously votes to NOT pass the bill to erect a statue of Ataturk #TurkeyFailed

March 4, 2015 By administrator

Carson City Council Unanimouly Rejects Ataturk Monument Measure

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.

 

Filed Under: Genocide, News Tagged With: #TurkeyFailed erect, ataturk, statue

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