Türkiye, Azerbaijan lambast Armenia over 'shameful' Nemesis Monument

Türkiye has criticised the inauguration of the "shameful" Nemesis Monument in the Armenian capital Yerevan, which honours assassins of 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 on Wednesday.

"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 normalisation 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 normalisation process," it said.

Azerbaijan slams 'terrorist policy'

A statement by the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry also condemned the unveiling of the so-called 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."

It added that such steps by Armenia "seriously question the country's alleged 'sincerity' and 'goodwill' in connection with the ongoing normalisation 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.​​​​​​​