Introducing Cyrus

Very proud of his Iranian roots is businessman Homer Abramian of the Iranian Cultural Foundation in New South Wales, Australia, who organized the first Iranian Cultural Festival in Sydney in 1994.

Abramian’s aim is to promote and publicize the Zoroastrian concepts of freedom of choice, tolerance, human rights and justice for all and he plans to do so by erecting 101 statues of Cyrus the Great, one in all the major cities of the world. The first such statue, a five meter granite version topped with a fravahar designed by architect Dr Hooshang Sayhoon, was erected in the Sydney Olympic Park in 2000 at a cost of US $ 250,000, he tells us. The subsequent ones, scanned from the first would cost $ 80,000. Smaller replicas would cost $ 10,000 each. The project, including the unveiling ceremony to be organized by the Foundation, would encourage all Parsis and Zoroastrians to converge under a single banner, he says.

Homer Abramian and a model statue of Cyrus the Great

Among the cities Abramian has in mind are Paris, Bombay, Tel Aviv, Haifa and assuredly Jerusalem, the capital city of three major religions, with its big Cyrus the Great Park maintained by a large Iranian Jewish community. Other destinations were Toronto, New York and London. Toos, Hamadan and Mashad in his native Iran were other spots where he felt Cyrus’ statue would be both effective and meaningful.