Mehmet Ali Birand: Kars monument demolition was a sad scene

PanARMENIAN.Net - CNN Turk editor-in-chief Mehmet Ali Birand says he was very sad to see the desolation as the Monument to Humanity in Turkey’s eastern province of Kars waited for its head to be cut off.

“I compared it to an inmate being sent to death knowing that first his head will be cut off and then his body torn to pieces. And what’s more is that this inmate had no guilt at all. You may or may not like this monument in Kars. You may, just like Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, call it a “freak.” But I am curious about the attitude of the municipality based on the prime minister’s reaction. I had trouble understanding how the demolition of this monument that has progressively become a symbol and in the eye of the public has been executed in front of cameras. It was perceived as the death sentence for a piece of art and a small group of people compared it to murder,” he writes in “The monument’s execution was a sad scene” article published by Hurriyet Daily News.

“The monument may be ugly. But why wasn’t that considered earlier? The municipality was still the Justice and Development Party, or AKP, municipality back then. It should not have accepted it then. Even if you wanted to destroy it, later turning it into a show is nothing but incompetence.”

He goes on to say: “The municipality is not aware that it has hurt its own party badly. There was no need for a show making the AKP look like an enemy of art right before the elections. With respect to the monument issue, the majority felt resentment at the images on TV screens and some just stood up to the AKP. It was obvious that they could not speak up because they shied away from the prime minister. But they could have discussed it with Erdoğan to find another solution. There was no need to be obstinate with each other. Unnecessarily, the AKP scored an own goal.”

“The taste left behind in public was not worth the political benefit to come,” CNN Turk anchorman concludes.