Turkey, Azerbaijan have zero Nazi monuments: Report

By Beyza Binnur Donmez

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey and Azerbaijan have zero monuments of Holocaust perpetrators but many countries, including the US, still erect statues, according to an American Jewish website.

The Forward's article was written one day before Germany marked Holocaust Remembrance Day and sought the same sensitivity shown to racist and colonist statues in 2020.

Monuments symbolizing racism and colonialism began to be questioned and toppled across the US in the wake of the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man in police custody last May.

The news site listed 320 monuments and street names in 16 countries that honor those who abetted or took part in the murder of Jews and others during the Holocaust.

They include Armenia, Australia, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Croatia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Ukraine and the US.

The US has one plaque of Pierre Laval, pro-Nazi French prime minister, Nazi collaborator Philippe Petain on Broadway Canyon of Heroes in New York and 12 monuments of Nazi-related individuals across the country.

It also has 11 streets named after Petain: Hartselle, Alabama; Prichard, Alabama; Yuma, Colorado; Abbeville, Louisiana; Monroe, Louisiana; Goffstown, New Hampshire; Milltown, New Jersey; Defiance, Ohio; Ellwood City, Pennsylvania; Nemacolin, Pennsylvania; and Dallas, Texas, according to the report.

In the report, Armenia stood out as one of the most Nazi-friendly countries with dozens of monuments honoring those who had helped Adolf Hitler's deadly cause.

Armenian nationalist Garegin Nzhdeh ((1886–1955), the report said, placed the Armenian Legion at the disposal of the Nazis, serving the Third Reich in the Caucasus, Crimea, and France. A giant monument in his memory was erected in Armenian capital Yerevan in 2016, making international headlines.

Jan. 27 is designated by the UN as Holocaust Remembrance Day and Germany remembered victims with a ceremony in parliament attended by representatives of the Jewish community and political leaders.