ANKARA. – Turkish Malatsia city hall destroyed a construction built by the Armenian Union of Malatsia (HAYDER), which should have served for an administrative guard-stop for the Christian cemetery and to hold memorial services.

The city hall sent machinery and workers to equal the construction to the ground on Thursday. To note, no representative of the Union was at the scene, CNNTurk reports.

Armenian community in Istanbul and members of the Union were shocked and demanded the authorities an explanation. Head of the Union claimed they had permission to build it. However, the building is destroyed together with their trust.  

They first had planned to put down the roof and warned beforehand about it. However, the workers misunderstood and destroyed the building completely, Malatsia city Mayor Ahmet Cakir said in the interview with Agos Armenian newspaper.