ISTANBUL
Türkiye on Wednesday criticized the inauguration of the Nemesis Monument in the Armenian capital Yerevan which honors perpetrators of assassinations against Ottoman and Azerbaijani officials in the early 1920s.
"We strongly condemn the opening of the 'Nemesis Monument' in Yerevan, which is dedicated to the perpetrators of the assassinations against Ottoman political and military leaders in the early 1920s and Azerbaijani officials of the time, as well as even some Ottoman citizens of Armenian origin," the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
"The opening of this shameful monument glorifies a bloody act of terror that led to heinous terrorist attacks in which 31 of our diplomats and their family members were murdered," it said.
The statement also underlined that the way these events were portrayed by Armenian media indicated that a distorted and unacceptable understanding of history persisted among some people.
"Such provocative steps, which are incompatible with the spirit of the normalization process between Türkiye and Armenia, will in no way contribute to the efforts to establish lasting and sustainable peace and stability in the region. On the contrary, they will negatively affect the normalization process," it said.
An earlier statement by the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry also condemned the unveiling of the Nemesis Monument.
“Building this monument with the permission and approval of the relevant government agencies of Armenia…is the promotion of the terrorist policy by Armenia and the propaganda of terrorist acts carried out throughout the history,” the statement said.
Recalling that Operation Nemesis targeted officials of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic as well as the Ottoman Empire between 1920 and 1922, the statement further said: “Armenian terrorism, extremism, aggressive separatism, and all forms and manifestations of racial discrimination must be fought decisively without any ambiguity or double standards.”
“The support of terrorism at the state level, which has been used by radical Armenian groups throughout history, must be strongly condemned by the international community, and in order to ensure peace and tranquility in the region, the policy of terrorism should be stopped by Armenia,” the statement said.
It added that such steps by Armenia “seriously question the country's alleged ‘sincerity’ and ‘goodwill’ in connection with the ongoing normalization negotiations with Azerbaijan and Türkiye.”
“It should be noted that the path to peace and reconciliation does not lie in the further glorification of crimes and mistakes but in the recognition of them,” it added.