Last week, a Turkish court ordered President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to pay 10,000 Turkish lira ($3,800) in compensation to the sculptor of a monument dedicated to Turkish-Armenian friendship, a piece Erdogan famously called a “monstrosity.” The outcome of the legal case, loaded with historical and political baggage, stands out in a slew of authoritarian and oppressive rulings from the Turkish judiciary in recent months.

Sculptor Mehmet Aksoy's "Monument to Humanity," erected atop a hill overlooking Kars, not far from the Turkish-Armenian border, featured two 35-meter-tall (115 feet) human figures, one holding an open hand toward Armenia. The work was commissioned by the Kars municipality, held by the Justice and Development Party (AKP), in 2006 at a time when the AKP government was making diplomatic efforts to reconcile with Armenia.

The process resulted in the signing of bilateral protocols that envisaged the establishment of diplomatic ties between Turkey and Armenia, the recognition of their existing border and the reopening of border crossings. Under the protocols, inked in Zurich in October 2009, the two sides also pledged to avoid policies contrary to good neighborly relations, condemn all forms of terrorism, extremism and violence and develop a new relationship based on peace and mutual understanding.

The process, however, hit a snag in January 2010, when Armenia’s constitutional court expressed its reservations concerning the 1915 genocide after Yerevan referred the protocols to the court, as required by law. The protocols were eventually frozen amid reluctance on both sides.