Armenian businessman Gagik Tsarukyan, in a FB post today, announced that workers have begun to install his massive statue of Jesus Christ atop Mt. Hatis, some thirty kilometers northeast of Yerevan.

“I want to share good news. Work to erect the statue of Jesus Christ has begun and will be in full swing soon. I am confident that this statue will open a new page in our country, of new hopes and successes, ” Tsarukyan writes, addressing Armenians around the world.

The site of the controversial 33-meter-high statue will also house a café, exhibition hall, and cable car.

Work at the site began in 2022, when Tsarukyan purchased large plots of land on Mt. Hatis at rock bottom prices. What followed was a series of contradictory government pronouncements regarding the statue’s legality and potential environmental impact.

The Armenian government, in 2008, recognized the extinct Hatis volcano as a geological monument where any construction work must be preceded by a detailed engineering-geological survey and that seismic risk assessments must also be conducted in the case of large structures.

The Armenian government, in 2022, gave a preliminary green-light for the project. Earlier this week, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan was quoted as saying that the statue would be a boon for tourism.

Tsarukyan also writes that he has received requests from Armenians, locally and internationally, to either financially contribute to the project or to physically work at the site.

“People want to be a participant in a truly historic process, a historical event,” writes Tsarukyan, one of Armenia’s richest citizens.

The businessman, who’s also dabbled in politics and heads the Prosperous Armenia party, is a controversial figure in his own right.

Armenia’s Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO), in November 2023, petitioned the courts to confiscate millions in assets belonging to Tsarukyan, one of Armenia’s richest men’ alleging they had been acquired via illegal means.

Tsarukyan’s Multi Group Concern holding company owns more than forty large and small businesses including the Yerevan Ararat Brandy-Wine-Vodka Factory, Ararat Cement CJSC, Kotayk Brewery, Multi Grand Hotel, and the Shangri La casino.

Tsarukyan, however, appears determined to press ahead with the project, and describes the statute as symbol of national revival, internal solidarity, and exhibition to the world.

Photo by Susanna Harutyunyan (Hetq Media Factory)