Azerbaijanis in Tbilisi call for dismantling monument to Artsakh war hero (video)  

A crowd of Azerbaijanis in Tbilisi on Friday rallied outside the Georgian parliament, calling for urgent government measures to dismantle a monument to a deceased hero of the Nagorno-Karbaakh (Artsakh) war.

Activists and public figures made loud speeches through microphones, holding up posters with Georgian and Azerbaijani slogans criticizing a decision to allow the local government of Akhalkalaki to erect the renewed statue of Mikael Avagyan in the village of Bughashen.

A philanthropist from the Armenian-populated region, who reportedly is also a relative of Avagyan, had allocated means for the erection of a new monument after the old sculpture (created in 1994) was damaged.