Victory Park

Monument: The Historical Experience

At the end of the 1930s, in order to provide Yerevan with clean air, it was decided to plant an artificial forest and a city park in Arabkir. After the Great Patriotic War, it got the name ‘Akhtanak’ Park, or, as people say, ‘Monument.’ The name ‘Monument’ gained popularity thanks to the statue of Stalin, which was set up in the park in 1950. This name spread so great that it refers not only to the park, but also the whole neighborhood.

If, having turned left, away from the statue of Mother Armenia, the visitors find themselves in an endless series of attractions: kangaroos, elephants, swans. These architectural extravagances bring back childhood joy. Vahram Nersisyan, the head of the Urakh Zhamants company, opens the photo archive of Monument consisting of 23 albums. For years, these albums have become dull, betraying traces of glue. The author of the photographic archive is the Umrikyan family.

Sipan Simonyan, one of the oldest employees of the park, says that Hakob Umrikyan founded the park in 1951. Working at the House of Culture in the Kanaker-Zeytun community, the exceptional work of Umrikyan brought him the post of director. Under his leadership, the garden gained the status of a favorite place for both Yerevan people and visitors. After the death of Hakob Umrikyan in 1995, the post of director was offered to his son Toros Umrikyan, a champion of table tennis. Toros has always visited his father as a child and learned how innovative methods could be used to improve the park’s attractiveness, implementing investment projects and improving the area.

In 1955-1956, the first Rocking Boat carousel was installed in the park. By 1959, the restaurant ‘Aragil’ had opened its doors. ‘Aragil’ gained great popularity in Yerevan very soon, and live music was performed there every day. ‘Mam jan, mam jan,’ one of the hits of those years, was always in the playlist of Aragil.