A giant monument to friendship between Armenia and Turkey has become a symbol of controversy rather than healing, The Associated Press stated in an article entitled Modern Art or Blight on the Landscape?

Turkey's prime minister Erdogan said the monument near the Armenian border is a "freak" that overshadows a nearby Islamic shrine, underscoring complex tensions in predominantly Muslim Turkey over religious piety and free expression in a society torn between the modern and the traditional.

The monument features a divided human figure, with one half extending a hand to the other half. It is meant to symbolize the pain of division and the hope of reconciliation, and was sculpted from stone by Mehmet Aksoy, a prominent Turkish artist.

"We would not show any sign of disrespect against any artist or tear down and discard his work of art," Culture Minister Ertugrul Gunay said. "The theme of the monument is correct, it gives the message of friendship. But there has been a controversy over the location of it for several years."

The monument has yet to be completed, and local authorities halted its construction on grounds that it was built on a historic military site, Timur Pasha emplacement, used to defend the city in the 16th century. Newspapers published pictures of the monument with a gigantic hand, which has to be installed, sitting on the foreground.

The 35-meter (115-feet) high monument was seen as a symbol of efforts to end a century of enmity between Turkey and Armenia.