Il potere e la politica delle statue di Yerevan

> For a time, many advocated for moving the fine equestrian statue Sasuntsi Davit (David of Sassoun), the legendary epic hero, from the train station in Erebuni to the square.

Honestly not a bad idea, but I’m biased because it’s probably my favorite statue. By the time it was commissioned, Kochar was already a seasoned sculptor and it was actually his second attempt at it; born in tsarist Russia, he received an Armenian education at Tbilisi’s Nersisian Academy, and left to further his education in France, where he ended up settling. He could’ve remained there but decided to repatriate to Armenia in 1936. He sculpted a David of Sasun statue that was unveiled in Yerevan in the late 1930s. But repatriates were seen with suspicion by Soviet authorities so he was arrested, imprisoned, and his statue destroyed. He only got released because one of his friends from the Nersisian Academy ended up becoming a Soviet bigwig (Anastas Mikoyan; it helps to have friends, especially if they end up in high places). So the statue that exists in Yerevan today is his second and was only made possible due to Khrushchev’s thaw. The original statue exists in some old photos; [here’s one](https://allinnet.info/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/1.jpg). I prefer the later one.