Armenian Genocide monument raises Turks’ anger in Cologne  

A cross-stone (khachkar) monument dedicated to Armenian Genocide victims has raised anger among the Turkish community in Cologne, Germany.

A group of 32 associations conducted a meeting with municipality officials and followed further developments, Anadolu News Agency reports, citing Levent Taskiran, a community representative.

Despite a strong opposition, the cross-stone was erected.

“We find the erection of such a monument in Cologne - a city with over 100,000 Turkish residents - a move disturbing internal peace. We do not accept this decision by the municipality and consider it anti-democratic,” Taskiran said.

It comes after the human rights NGO Endangered Nations issued a call for erecting monuments to Armenian and other Christian World War I victims in German cities and towns.

In a landmark vote in 2016, the German Bundestag passed a resolution recognizing the 1915 killings of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as a crime of genocide.