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ARMENIA AND TURKEY: AS RECONCILIATION PROCESS MOVES FORWARD, KARS MONUMENT FUELS CONTROVERSY
Nicholas Birch
http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insig htb/articles/eav101609.shtml
10/16/09
Looming on a hilltop overlooking the eastern Turkish city of Kars,
the Monument to Humanity seems like a perfect symbol for the on-going
Turkish-Armenian rapprochement.
Two countries moving to put past enmities behind them represented
in thirty meters of concrete: two figures standing face to face,
on the verge of shaking hands.
Rapprochement was certainly the aim of the man who dreamed the
statue up, former Kars mayor Naif Alibeyoglu. First elected in 1999,
he invited Azeri and Armenian artists to Kars, signed sister city
agreements across the region, and campaigned in 2005 to end a 16-year
Turkish embargo on Armenia.
"The statue was my call for peace," Alibeyoglu says. "Prejudices on
both sides are deep, because neither side knows the other. We needed
to break the ice."
That is exactly what Ankara and Yerevan are now trying to do. Signed
this October 10, two protocols put forward a gradual plan for the
normalization of relations. [For background see the Eurasia Insight
archive]. The protocols foresee full diplomatic relations, the
re-opening of the border, and the setting up of bilateral commissions
on issues ranging from taxes to what drafters call "the historic
dimension." [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].
The protocols now have to be ratified by both countries' parliaments
for the peace process to move forward. Judging by the fate of Naif
Alibeyoglu's monument, the road ahead will be anything but easy.
>>From its inception in 2006, the statue has encountered stiff local
opposition. Some objected to its original name -- a Monument to Peace.
Others disapproved of architect Mehmet Aksoy's plans to have water
running like tears down the front of both figures to merge in a pool
at their feet.
"People were asking which one represented Turkey and which one
Armenia," Aksoy remembers. "That is pure ignorance: this is a monument
against all wars, not one specific one."
The man who led opposition to the statue, local head of the Nationalist
Action Party Oktay Aktas remains skeptical about the project. "Why
is one figure standing with its head bowed, as if ashamed", he
asks. "Turkey has nothing to be ashamed of."
In fact, the two figures are standing straight. But Aktas, an ethnic
Azeri like roughly 20 percent of Kars' population, insists the
monument is "an Armenian statue" representing Armenia reaching out
to embrace eastern Turkish lands that had a large Armenian minority
until 1915. "I said I would smash the statue down with my own hands,
and I will," he adds.
He may not have to. Last November, responding to his petition, Turkey's
Commission for Monuments fastened on the fact that Alibeyoglu had built
a viewing platform underneath the statue without planning permission
and ordered it, and the monument, to be demolished.
Its fate now lies with Turkey's Ministry of Culture.
Today, it stands unfinished. Its three-meter high hand, supposed to
join the two figures, was never attached. It lies fingers up in the
gravel in front. "The decision was 100 per cent political," says
Kars-based architect Ali Ihsan Alinak. "It was the same commission
that gave permission for the statue to be built in the first place."
But it wasn't just local nationalists like Oktay Aktas that Alibeyoglu
managed to upset. A relatively recent convert to the ruling Justice and
Development Party (AKP) government, the former mayor's enthusiastic
efforts to improve Kars' relations with its natural hinterland in
the Caucasus appear to have unnerved his political masters too.
He was shunted out of the party in the run up to municipal elections
this May. Many in Kars say the consulate Azerbaijan opened in the
town in 2004 played an active role in his downfall.
The extreme sensitivity of the Armenian issue has marked Turkish
politics since the rapprochement got under way following the Turkish
President Abdullah Gul's visit to Armenia last September. [For
background see the Eurasia Insight archive].
Hopes the protocol would be pushed through quickly were dealt a blow
this May when Turkey's prime minister said signing was dependent
on a solution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Roughly 15 percent
of Azerbaijan's land has been under Armenian occupation since the
early 1990s.
Turkey now is fudging that condition. But Turks' natural sympathy for
Azerbaijan remains strong. Some analysts think it could even cause
splits inside the AKP, a coalition of former Islamists, center-right
politicians and nationalists which has enough seats in parliament
to ratify the protocol in the face of opposition from secularist and
nationalist parties.
"This is a very emotional issue," agrees Suat Kiniklioglu, the AKP's
deputy chairman of external affairs. "What needs to be underlined ...
are the improvements a stable southern Caucasus could bring to Turkey's
European [Union] bid, to its international stature and legitimacy."
In Kars, a town whose economy has been hit by the closure of the
Armenian border just 40 kilometers away, the AKP mayor who has taken
over from Naif Alibeyoglu, Nevzat Bozkus, is confident his party
chiefs will steer the protocol through parliament without mishaps.
Alibeyoglu is less optimistic. "Small-minded people blocked the
monument and they will block the peace process too," he says. "You
wait and see, it will end up like my statue: a statue without hands."
Editor's Note: Nicolas Birch specializes in Turkey, Iran and the
Middle East.
Nicholas Birch
http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insig htb/articles/eav101609.shtml
10/16/09
Looming on a hilltop overlooking the eastern Turkish city of Kars,
the Monument to Humanity seems like a perfect symbol for the on-going
Turkish-Armenian rapprochement.
Two countries moving to put past enmities behind them represented
in thirty meters of concrete: two figures standing face to face,
on the verge of shaking hands.
Rapprochement was certainly the aim of the man who dreamed the
statue up, former Kars mayor Naif Alibeyoglu. First elected in 1999,
he invited Azeri and Armenian artists to Kars, signed sister city
agreements across the region, and campaigned in 2005 to end a 16-year
Turkish embargo on Armenia.
"The statue was my call for peace," Alibeyoglu says. "Prejudices on
both sides are deep, because neither side knows the other. We needed
to break the ice."
That is exactly what Ankara and Yerevan are now trying to do. Signed
this October 10, two protocols put forward a gradual plan for the
normalization of relations. [For background see the Eurasia Insight
archive]. The protocols foresee full diplomatic relations, the
re-opening of the border, and the setting up of bilateral commissions
on issues ranging from taxes to what drafters call "the historic
dimension." [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].
The protocols now have to be ratified by both countries' parliaments
for the peace process to move forward. Judging by the fate of Naif
Alibeyoglu's monument, the road ahead will be anything but easy.
>>From its inception in 2006, the statue has encountered stiff local
opposition. Some objected to its original name -- a Monument to Peace.
Others disapproved of architect Mehmet Aksoy's plans to have water
running like tears down the front of both figures to merge in a pool
at their feet.
"People were asking which one represented Turkey and which one
Armenia," Aksoy remembers. "That is pure ignorance: this is a monument
against all wars, not one specific one."
The man who led opposition to the statue, local head of the Nationalist
Action Party Oktay Aktas remains skeptical about the project. "Why
is one figure standing with its head bowed, as if ashamed", he
asks. "Turkey has nothing to be ashamed of."
In fact, the two figures are standing straight. But Aktas, an ethnic
Azeri like roughly 20 percent of Kars' population, insists the
monument is "an Armenian statue" representing Armenia reaching out
to embrace eastern Turkish lands that had a large Armenian minority
until 1915. "I said I would smash the statue down with my own hands,
and I will," he adds.
He may not have to. Last November, responding to his petition, Turkey's
Commission for Monuments fastened on the fact that Alibeyoglu had built
a viewing platform underneath the statue without planning permission
and ordered it, and the monument, to be demolished.
Its fate now lies with Turkey's Ministry of Culture.
Today, it stands unfinished. Its three-meter high hand, supposed to
join the two figures, was never attached. It lies fingers up in the
gravel in front. "The decision was 100 per cent political," says
Kars-based architect Ali Ihsan Alinak. "It was the same commission
that gave permission for the statue to be built in the first place."
But it wasn't just local nationalists like Oktay Aktas that Alibeyoglu
managed to upset. A relatively recent convert to the ruling Justice and
Development Party (AKP) government, the former mayor's enthusiastic
efforts to improve Kars' relations with its natural hinterland in
the Caucasus appear to have unnerved his political masters too.
He was shunted out of the party in the run up to municipal elections
this May. Many in Kars say the consulate Azerbaijan opened in the
town in 2004 played an active role in his downfall.
The extreme sensitivity of the Armenian issue has marked Turkish
politics since the rapprochement got under way following the Turkish
President Abdullah Gul's visit to Armenia last September. [For
background see the Eurasia Insight archive].
Hopes the protocol would be pushed through quickly were dealt a blow
this May when Turkey's prime minister said signing was dependent
on a solution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Roughly 15 percent
of Azerbaijan's land has been under Armenian occupation since the
early 1990s.
Turkey now is fudging that condition. But Turks' natural sympathy for
Azerbaijan remains strong. Some analysts think it could even cause
splits inside the AKP, a coalition of former Islamists, center-right
politicians and nationalists which has enough seats in parliament
to ratify the protocol in the face of opposition from secularist and
nationalist parties.
"This is a very emotional issue," agrees Suat Kiniklioglu, the AKP's
deputy chairman of external affairs. "What needs to be underlined ...
are the improvements a stable southern Caucasus could bring to Turkey's
European [Union] bid, to its international stature and legitimacy."
In Kars, a town whose economy has been hit by the closure of the
Armenian border just 40 kilometers away, the AKP mayor who has taken
over from Naif Alibeyoglu, Nevzat Bozkus, is confident his party
chiefs will steer the protocol through parliament without mishaps.
Alibeyoglu is less optimistic. "Small-minded people blocked the
monument and they will block the peace process too," he says. "You
wait and see, it will end up like my statue: a statue without hands."
Editor's Note: Nicolas Birch specializes in Turkey, Iran and the
Middle East.