Dismantling the monument of the Armenian-Turkish friendship in Kars is purely Turkey's internal affair and is not due to the relations with Armenia, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said at a press conference on Friday, Dogan news agency reported.
"Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's statements about the fact that the monument should be dismantled, is only due to aesthetic motives, there is no political hidden motive," Davutoglu said.
Earlier on Friday, Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian expressed his regret for the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's statements.
"Any new step, aimed at rejection of the Armenian-Turkish normalization process can only harm the process," Nalbandian said at a news conference in Yerevan.
Erdogan during last week's visit to Kars touched upon the issue of a monument on the Armenian-Turkish friendship constructed under the city's former mayor, calling it a monstrous and he said it should be dismantled. The monument is the Turkish sculptor Mehmet Aksoy's work. The height of the monument is more than 30 meters, weight - about 1,500 tons.
Diplomatic relations between Armenia and Turkey have been severed since 1993 due to Armenia's claims of an alleged genocide and its occupation of Azerbaijani lands.
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