ANKARA, Jan 10: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan came under fire on Monday for deriding a monument to friendship with neighbouring Armenia and ordering its destruction.

The country's culture minister sought to soothe the criticism, arguing that Mr Erdogan was misunderstood.

“We will never show disrespect to the work of any artist. We will never attempt to destroy and throw away the work of an artist,” Ertugrul Gunay told reporters.

On a visit to the eastern town of Kars on Sunday, Mr Erdogan slammed “a monstrosity... a weird thing erected” near the tomb of an Islamic scholar.

He urged the local mayor, a member of his ruling Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party, to demolish the monument, erected near the border with Armenia, and replace it with a park.

Gunay argued the prime minister did not target the statue but referred to the illegal construction of shanty houses in an area which is home to century-old Islamic monuments.

The 30-metre unfinished concrete statue, depicting two figures emerging from one human shape, was commissioned in 2006 to place emphasis on friendship between the two neighbours, long divided by bloody history and mistrust.

The sculptor, Mehmet Aksoy, defended his work, saying on NTV television its destruction would recall the demolition by the Taliban of ancient Buddhist statues in Afghanistans Bamiyan valley in 2001 that stunned the world.

Government opponents denounced Erdogan's comments, with former culture minister Ercan Karakas saying they were a “shame” and that “the sculpture is neither strange nor ugly”. Veteran columnist Tarhan Erdem warned that the outburst would deal a blow to th epremier's democratic credentials and urged the prime minister to retract his remarks. —AFP