The results of tender for removal of the Turkish-Armenian friendship monument in Kars will be announced after the relevant court decision is sent to the local municipality, spokesperson for the Kars municipality Ozlem Ozturk stated.

He said Erzurum Administrative Court is expected to pass written decision soon. “Removal of the monument was temporarily stopped by the earlier court decision. Erzurum Administrative Court canceled that decision. Now, we are waiting for the court decision in written form. Then we will announce the results of the tender for removal of the monument,” APA quoted him as saying.

The court stopped the removal process after the monument sculptor Mehmet Aksoy’s appeal, but Erzurum court cancelled the decision.

Kars municipality decided to remove the monument on February 1, 2011. The construction of the Monument to Humanity, symbolizing the Turkish-Armenian friendship, started in 2008, yet has not been completed.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan kicked off a new controversy after he described a statue in the eastern province of Kars as a “monstrosity.”