The site where the Monument to Humanity stood is now an empty plinth in Kars, a peculiar kind of monument in itself — an absence that speaks louder than the sculpture that was there. The work was commissioned by the Kars municipality in 2006 as a symbolic gesture toward Turkish-Armenian reconciliation, depicting two halves of a stylised human figure reaching toward each other across a vertical divide.
The monument became a political flashpoint when Erdogan condemned it on a visit to the city, and it was demolished in 2011 before completion. The controversy — over a piece of public art meant to represent peace — captures something essential about the frozen state of Turkish-Armenian relations. The empty plinth is near the castle in the upper part of the city. The story is covered in the Kars Museum and in Aksoy's subsequent memoir of the episode.