Khachatur AbovianRegarded by literary historians as the father of modern Armenian literature, Khachatur Abovian authored the first Armenian novel in ashkharapar, Verk Hayastani (The Wounds of Armenia), which, after Narek, is probably the most critically acclaimed and widely discussed and admired work in Armenian literature. Abovyan was born in the village of Kanaker (now a district within Yerevan), and as a child was a pupil at a religious seminary in Echmiadzin. For a long time his dream of improving his education and becoming active in public affairs remained but a dream until a happy chance led Abovyan to accompany a professor from Derpt University to the summit of Mount Ararat in 1829. The scientist helped the inquisitive youth to gain entrance to Derpt University. After he graduated, Abovyan taught in Tiflis, and from 1843 until his tragic disappearance (on April 2, 1848, he left his home never to return) he was an inspector at the Yerevan uyezd college. Abovian was an intensely committed writer – and committed in the Sartrian sense – a writer who saw the “angularity” of his time and the options that the historic moment presented: obedience to the Asiatic tyrant and eventual assimilation on the one hand, and on the other, self-determination and the adoption of the best ideological and technological elements of the West. Abovian was a revolutionary with the temperament of a martyr. “All I wan,” he once declared, “is to give my life to my beloved country; to serve her as long as there is breath in my mouth.” At the end of the Yerevan's largest streets named afer Abovyan, in the centre of the city stands the statue of Khachatur Abovyan. The 9 meter high bronze statue was designed by Gevork Tamanian (son of Alexander Tamanian) and sculpted by Suren Stepanyanwas unveiled in 1950. |
