ISTANBUL. – Mehmet Aksoy, the sculptor of the monument of “Humanity” which was erected in Kars, Turkey—and which was to symbolize Armenian-Turkish friendship and peace—, had filed a lawsuit against Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who had called the monument “monstrous” and ordered for its dismantling. And Erdogan’s attorneys have submitted to an Istanbul court the Turkish PM’s written defense statement for the case.    

The defense statement notes that Erdogan was not against the existence of the monument, but rather against the latter’s location. According to the written defense, the Turkish PM insulted neither the monument nor its sculptor, Radikal daily of Turkey informs.   

“According to the explanatory dictionary published by the Linguistic Board of Turkey, the [Turkish] word ‘ucube’ [‘monstrous’], which Erdogan used, also means ‘very bizarre.’ Artists must be open to public criticisms toward their creations,” Turkish PM’s written defense statement also noted.