Mother Armenia

Mother Armenia

Mother Armenia (Armenian: Մայր Հայաստան - Mayr Hayastan) is a statue in Victory Park of an Armenian mother overlooking the capital city of Yerevan, Armenia.

History

During Stalin's reign on the Soviet Union, Grigor Harutyunyan, the first secretary of the Armenian Communist Party's Central Committee and members of the government were carefully seeing to the construction of a monument for Stalin which was completed on November 29, 1950 and unveiled to the people. The statue was considered a masterpiece sculpted by Sergey Merkurov. Realizing that occupying a pedestal can be a short-term honor, Israelyan designed the pedestal to resemble an Armenian church - at least on the inside. In contrast to the right-angled shapes of the outside, inside was light and pleasing to the eye and resembled Echmiadzin's seventh-century St. Hripsime Church.

In fact, Israelyan's prediction came true as the Soviet leader's time came to an end quickly afterwards and his monument was taken down. The monument was replaced in 1967 by the Mother Armenia statue which was designed by Ara Harutyunyan.

Symbolism

"Mother Armenia" statue stands to symbolize peace through strength. It reminds us of some of the prominent female figures in Armenian history, such as Sossé Mayrig and many others who never hesitated to take up arms to help their husbands who would clash with Turkish troops and Kurdish irregulars. It also represents the important status and value attributed to the older female members of an Armenian family. This is in sharp contrast to the treatment of women in some of the Islamic societies surrounding Armenia.

Its strategic location of being on a hill overlooking Yerevan makes it look like she is the guardian of the Armenian capital. Each May 9, thousands pass by the statue of Mother Armenia to commemorate Armenia's war dead. In the huge territory of the monument (3,000 square meters), inside the 50-meter pedestal there is Mother Armenia Museum of the Ministry of Defense. The relics exhibited tell about heroism of Armenians in World War II and Nagorno-Karabakh War of the 1980-90s. There are personal belongings, weapons and documents of the heroes and walls are decorated with their portraits. There is a historical map, on which forces worked for the liberation of Shushi among other historical artifacts.

References

40°11′42.90″N 44°31′29.34″E