Me, myself and I- Gayane Simonyan

Author: Gayane Simonyan

I'm Gayane Simonyan from Armenia who passed 2720 km to get to Florence, Italy on April 8 and who is happy to explore “Bella Italia”.



I was born and raised in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia. My homeland is located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia to the North, Azerbaijan to the east and Iran to the South.

After getting my Bachelor’s degree in linguistics in Armenia, I decided to change my major a little bit and I moved to Tbilisi, Georgia to get my Masters’ in Journalism and Media Management. So, now I'm a second year student at Georgian Institute of Public Affairs (GIPA), faculty of Journalism and Media Management. The program is strongly supported by US Embassies in Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan. In cooperation with South Carolina University, GIPA is inviting professional reporters, editors from USA to share their professional experience and knowledge with us-students.

According to the curriculum we go for internship to the foreign countries other than Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan. We are free to choose our hosting organization, company, agency, etc.

I, always having a dream to visit “Bella Italia” had a clear target where to go. Searching for different opportunities in Italy I ended up with finding a perfect match: 2- month-internship at Istituto Europeo (http://www.istitutoeuropeo.it/).

My decision to pursue the internship at Istituto Europeo is underscored by my desire to be a part of professional working staff at this Italian University, share my knowledge, gain more experience and of course to get to know many different people from different parts of this beautiful world. One of the most important advantages of the university is that it spellbinds young minds like me who have the zeal to combine theoretical study with research and practical work putting enthusiasm on it.

As one of these young minds who wish to opt for technically challenging career filled with excitement of setting a goal and finding ways, no matter taugh or rough- to get to the goal-point and to impliment it using various techniques and skills-has led me into applying for this internship and offering to put my standard, non-standard and creative ideas into the further development of Istituto Europeo.

I'm here to write various articles, make photos and videos about dreamy Florence like:

• A video and/or a photo- story about life in Florence providing information where to go, what to do.
• An exhibition at Palazzo Strozzi a Firenze called "Pontormo and Rosso Fiorentino" on April 15 devoted to the work of the two famous painters Pontormo and of Rosso Fiorentino.
• An article and photos how Easter is celebrated in Florence organizing special events every day from April 17 to 21.
• Gelato Festival to be held from April 24 to May 1

I'm interested but not limited only in these topics, so if you are interested, you can simply follow the updates.

As a student at GIPA, I gained basic journalism skills using the latest techniques of professional reporting and writing for both print and the broadcast media. I also took courses of Journalism ethics, Programming, PR; chose Media Management track to get more management techniques and key knowledge fields like economics.

As GIPA students we produced radio and TV newscasts and short video stories, photo reportages, some of which were put in NewsCafe (http://news-cafe.gipa.ge/index.php/en/) a student media available in Georgian and English. So, these skills will help me in covering these

My innate enthusiasm for facing formidable tasks and my will to learn and implement new things, aided me to get through various stages of my academic life with flying colours.

So, this is a great opportunity for me to show, to use all the knowledge and practice gained, and it will help me go deeper in my major as a Journalist and Media Manager, and what is more important, to see how Journalism works outside Caucasus region.

Benvenuti in Italia – Welcome to Italy.

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The Hands Statue in Yerevan, Armenia

by Gayani Simonyan


The original white marble The Hands Statue was brought to Armenia from an Italian city Carrara representing the friendship between the two twinned cities- Yerevan, the capital of Armenia and Carrara, Italy. This sculpture was put in the park located on the corner of Moskovyan and Teryan streets neighboring “Yeritasardakan” (Youth) metro station and symbolizing the friendship between Armenian and Italian people. This is the story known to the majority of people living in Armenia.

As a respond Yerevan sent the people of Carrara a model of memorial fountain made of tufa, and decorated with national motifs, the replica of which is placed in Yerevan not far from “The hands of friendship” sculpture. This memorial was made by well-known Armenian sculptor Ara Harutyunyan and arcitect Rafael Israelyan.

The bilateral donation was done in 1967. This year was an abundant year for opening new statues. It was in 1967 that Mother Armenia Statue in Yerevan came to replace a monumental statue of Joseph Stalin and was put in Victory park, then the statue of Mesrop Mashtots (the inventor of Armenian alphabet) was  opened in front of Matenedaran (repository  of ancient manuscripts).

In addition to this, a memorable medal and a book were awarded to Yerevan by Carrara, as a symbol of friendship, which are kept in the Yerevan History Museum and displayed with the other exhibits associated with the Sister Cities. 

Ruzan Khachatryan, an Armenian skilled journalist, is taking the track, going deeper on this issue and making a short film that brings forward many interesting things about the history of this Hands Statue.

In 60^th when the two cities were opposed to be sister cities:  Yerevan as a city of tufa stone known to the world, and Carrara also as a city of stone known for its marble.  So these two cities were proclaimed to be sister cities.

In 1965 the sculptor Ara Harutyunyan with his Adolescence statue took part in biennial of Carrara. During these 10 days they managed to visit the marble quarry that the Italian famous architects including architect, sculptor, painter Michelangelo were using.

Coming back to Armenia Ara Harutyunyan is telling Grigor Hasratyan, the head of the executive committee of Yerevan City Council, about a statue that he had seen in the quarry. The same year Grigor Hasratyan with his delegation is visiting the quarry of marble in Carrara and making a contract to transfer the hands statue to Yerevan and give the memorial fountain instead. In 1967 the memorial is transferred to Carrara with the sign on it: “In segno di fraternità Erevan Carrara”. 

Now about the unknown mystery that has been undiscovered for ages.
What statue did Armenians see in Carrara marble quarry?

According to Aram Harutyunyan (son of sculptor Ara Harutyunyan), his father notices in quarry some parts of a big statue thinking that it’s Jesus Christ’s statue not collected yet: his head with long hair, 2 hands- the right one symbolizing trinity. He is being told that the statue won’t be collected anymore because the sponsor refuses to pay, the author doesn’t want to continue his work and thus the fragments are left in this quarry. His father realizes that they can’t transfer Jesus Christ’s head, so he decides to take the hands.

Ruben Hasratyan, son of Grigor Hasratyan, agrees on the hands being part of Jesus Christ’s statue.

It would be dangerous to take Jesus Christ’s head to Armenia at that time as during Soviet period the rejection of belief of existence of deities was propagated.

So the mystery of the Hands was known only to a few people and only some could guest that the right hand is symbolizing trinity.

Aram Harutyunyan, judging by the size of hands, says that the statue is supposed to be around 15- 20 meters.

There’s a similarity of hands and sizes of this statue with the “Christ of Havana” that Jilma Madera, a well-know sculptor created. The statue is about 20 meters composed of 67 pieces that were brought from Italy and put in Cuba’s capital, Havana. It was inaugurated on December 24, 1958 before the hands could be put in Yerevan.

Just fifteen days after its inauguration, on January 8, 1959, Fidel Castro entered Havana during the Cuban Revolution. The same day the statue was hit by lightning and its head was destroyed. But it was subsequently repaired.

Media was silent about what happened with the hands of the statue but it was written in American News journal in 1963 the testimony of Raul Mendoza, an architect who ran from Cuba by ship and repaired the head of the statue. He said that Fidel Castro’s government took the lightening conductor out of the statue’s head in order it wouldn’t be safe of lightening and to show that God is a myth and his statue - defenseless. Should the architect speak about it, he would be sentence immediately.

Armenian architects are excluding any connection between the statues in Havana and the one in Armenia. Both the author and the complete sculpture, where the Hands statue derives from, remain unknown.

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