COURT STOPS RAZING OF ARMENIA FRIENDSHIP STATUE

The court in eastern Erzurum issued a temporary order Monday blocking the demolition, which had been approved last month by the city council of Kars where the statue stands, the agency said, quoting Asli Kazan, the lawyer for the sculptor Mehmet Aksoy.

The order would stop "irreparable damage" being done to the statue while the courts decide on its ultimate fate, he said.

On a visit to the town in eastern Turkey in January, Erdogan told the town's mayor, a member of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), that the unfinished statue was a "monstrosity" and should be demolished.

He said the work was out of place in a region known for the beauty of its centuries-old Islamic-inspired monuments.

The 30-metre (100-foot) concrete statue, depicting two figures emerging from one human shape, was commissioned in 2006 to place emphasis on friendship between the two neighbours with a history of enmity and suspicion.

Sculptor Aksoy has said destruction of the statue would evoke the demolition by the Taliban of ancient Buddhist statues in Afghanistan's Bamiyan valley in 2001 that stunned the world.

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