Armenian tycoon Gagik Tsarukyan announced that the installation of the 33-metre-high statue of Jesus Christ on Mount Hatis has commenced and ‘will soon proceed at full scale’.
The total complex, together with the pedestal, is estimated to reach up to 100 meters.
‘I am confident that with this statue a new chapter in our country, of new hopes and successes will open’, Tsarukyan said in his Facebook post on Thursday.
Tsarukyan is one of the richest people in Armenia and has previously served as an MP of his Prosperouse Armenia party.
He launched his Jesus statue project in 2022, which raised concerns about the risks the statue might pose to natural and cultural monuments on Mount Hatis in the Kotayk region, where Tsarukyan was born.
In his post on Thursday, Tsarukyan said that since the project launched, he had received offers for financial contribution from Armenians around the world, which he rejected, ‘as my family has the decision to cover all expenses of the project’.
Given the ‘strong’ public desire to take part in ‘this historic process’, Tsarukyan said he had decided to develop ways for people wishing to contribute to be able to act, such as taking part by planting a tree or placing a stone.
‘I will be at the construction site alongside the builders, working with the labourers, gladly doing whatever task is needed on the ground. Anyone who wishes to join is welcome to do the same’, the post said.
Tsarukyan further suggested that the statue would rise and become ‘a symbol of national revival, internal solidarity, and presentation to the world’.
The statue, designed by Armen Samvelyan, was chosen through a contest. Tsarukyan said he wants the statute to be visible from any part of the country ‘as it is in Rio de Janeiro’.
The project to construct the Jesus statue followed Armenia’s defeat in the Second Nagorno-Karabakh war in 2020, with the goal of helping the Armenians ‘come out of despair’, Tsarukyan said at the time.
Back then, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan praised the idea and said that the statue would attract more tourists to Armenia.
At the same, the Armenian Apostolic Church spoke against it, calling on the authors of the initiative to ‘refrain from projects that contradict the tradition’ of the church.
Ani Avetisyan
