-= Kara Bala =- Flower Power Not Enough

[MosJan]

http://www.armeniaweek.com/april052002/photos/karabala_2_s.jpg

 

Flower Power Not Enough: Beloved statue of "Black Boy" marked for a move

By Gayane Abrahamian

ArmeniaWeek reporter

A Yerevan icon is under threat.

 

"Kara Bala" -- the Flower Man of Yerevan - stands exactly in the path of demolition preparing the city center for the North Avenue Project.

 

The statue, erected in 1991, is a landmark between Puskin and Aram streets, passed daily by thousands on Yerevan's busy Abovian Street. Now it is in the way, as plans for a pedestrian thoroughfare linking Republic Square with Opera Square are clearing buildings in between.

 

Yerevan mayor Robert Nazarian and Chief Architect of the city Narek Sargsian say the famous statue will find a new home, though neither knows yet where it will be.

 

Its creator, sculptor Levon Tokmajian, is concerned about the fate of Kara Bala.

 

"I'm very anxious about replacing the statue as it will lose its importance and charm if it is put in another place," Tokmajian says, "Kara-Bala used to stand exactly in that place on Abovian street."

 

One admirer, Minas Hovsebian who used to live near the statue, says North Avenue should bypass Kara Bala.

 

"That statue shouldn't be replaced. This is the place for it," Hovsepian says. "He used to stand there with the flowers in his hands. That kind old man with red nose and red mouth always made people happy."

 

Today, most only know of the Kara Bala statue. Few know the man in whose honor it was sculpted.

 

The real Kara Bala was a well-known Yerevan eccentric in the 1930s. His real name was Karapet, but the locals gave him the name "Kara Bala" -- which is Turkish for "black boy" -- because of his dark complexion.

 

He is said to have come from a well-to-do family and was married to a beautiful wife and had a handsome son.

 

Kara Bala grew roses. He would take his roses to Astafian Street (now Abovian) where he would stand and give them to girls.

 

"Kara-Bala was passionately in love with famous actress Arus Voskanian," Tokmajian says. "The actress used to walk along Abovian Street to the theater and get one beautiful red rose every morning. A Turkish guy was courting Arus Voskanian that time, which drove Kara Bala crazy. Flashes of jealousy were blazing out of his eyes and one day, unable to cope with his jealousy, he killed that Turkish guy."

 

As a result he found himself in a jail far from flowers and smiles. By chance, Kara Bala became a prison mate of poet Egishe Charents, who was imprisoned by the State for writing poems against the politics of Communism.

 

Charents liked Kara Bala, and among the few poems saved from Charents' prison writings is one about the Flower Man.

 

He puts on a mackintosh

And then suddenly tatters.

I didn't know if he is an Artist or

Kara-Bala, who is growing flowers.

 

When he was released Kara Bala encountered circumstances that were even gloomier than his life in prison.

 

His wife and son left him; he didn't have a house and a garden any more and his roses were all uprooted.

 

"I am not Kara Bala any more, I'm Dardy Bala ('dard' means sorrow in Armenian)," he kept saying, wandering sadly in town and embracing his only reliable friend, a bottle of wine.

 

"However he didn't stop giving flowers," Tokmajian says. "When he came across flowers he gave them, which were the only delight of his life, to girls. He was waiting days long to see his beloved actress for whom he had sacrificed his whole life but he couldn't find her. She had died by that time."

 

Part of the Kara Bala legend is that he used to place one red rose on the grave of the actress.

 

Much else about the Flower Man is either unknown or has been forgotten.

 

One day "Dardy Bala" was seen sitting on a rock, hiding sadness in his eyes. The next day he was found there, frozen to death.

 

The kind old man comforted many hearts by his smile and flowers and people remember him. But they pass indifferently by the statue and many of them think he was a beggar.

 

"He was a great person. He wasn't a beggar," Tokmajian says. "He had a big heart where the whole nation could be placed. He deserved a statue. I sculpted it recalling memories of my childhood and tried to create it as the symbol of humanity."

 

It is a symbol the sculptor wishes would stay just where he placed it, on the spot where Kara Bala the Flower Man of Yerevan planted a legend, one rose at a time.

Photos by Vahram Mkhitarian

 

©Copyright ArmeniaWeek April 05, 2002. all rights reserved. WWW.ARMENIAWEEK.COM is published by the FOURTH MILLENNIUM SOCIETY, publishers of ARMENIAN INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE. Articles may not be published without prior consent.

[Arpa]

I have read about this project several times yet I still cannot picture the plan.

Below a map of Yerevan.

Can anybody tell exactly what the plan is? One report indicated that the thoroughfare would connect the Opera Square starting at the corner of Terian and Toumanian streets and end at the Amirian street which is the street next to Hotel Armenia that connects the Republic Square to Mashtots Avenue. And, how does Abovian Street come in the picture.? My understanding is that the new avenue will be kind of diagonal

 

"The statue, erected in 1991, is a landmark between Puskin and Aram streets, passed daily by thousands on Yerevan's busy Abovian Street. Now it is in the way, as plans for a pedestrian thoroughfare linking Republic Square with Opera Square are clearing buildings in between."

 

http://www.cilicia.com/armo5_yerevan.html

[Paul bunyan]

I hope that the authorities can "leave well enough alone" so to speak, and leave this unique monument right where it is.

it will be a fine addition to the pedestrian area. once government gets its hands on sculptures and puts them in

storage. they usually lose them!