The Mother Armenia statue symbolizes ‘peace through strength’.It can remind viewers of some of the prominent female figuresin Armenian history, such as Sose Mayrig, who took up arms to help their husbands in their clashes withTurkish troops and Kurdish irregulars. It also recalls the important status and value attributed to the older female members of an Armenian family.
Its location on a hill overlooking Yerevan makes it look like a guardian of the Armenian capital. Every year on 9 May, thousands of Armenians visit the statue of Mother Armenia and lay flowers to commemorate the Armenian martyrs of the Second World War. The pedestal hosts the Mother Armenia Military Museum of Ministry of Defense. When first built it housed a military museum dedicated to World War II. Today, a large proportion of the exhibition space is devoted to the Nagorno-Karabakh War in 1988-1994. On display are the personal belongings, weapons, and documents of participants, and the walls are decorated with their portraits. Among other historical artifacts, there is a map on which Armenian forces worked out their campaign for the capture of Shushi.
