Ardashes Harutiunian ' onMouseout='HidePop("56481")' href="/topics/Ottoman_Empire">Ottoman Empire

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

 - August 16, 1915) was an Armenia

Armenia

Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...

n poet, a self-educated translator from French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

 and literary critic, who became one of the most outstanding intellectuals of his period.

Since 1912 he lived in Constantinople

Constantinople

Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...

, where he worked as a teacher and contributed to Western Armenia

Western Armenia

Western Armenia is a term, primarily used by Armenians, to refer to Armenian-inhabited areas of the Armenian Highland that were part of the Ottoman Empire and now are part of the Republic of Turkey....

n newspapers. His first book of poems, "Lkvadz Knar", Harutiunian published in 1902. The next two compilations, "Yergunk" and "Nor Knar", were published in 1906 and 1912.

He was one of the first literary critics of contemporary Armenian poets like Misak Metsarents

Misak Metsarents

File:Grave of Misak Metsarents.jpgMisak Metsarents was a leading Western Armenian poet.Misak Metsarents was born in the Pingian village of Vilayet of Kharpert, near Agn. In 1894, he moved with his family to Sepastia, where he attended the Aramian School. Until 1902, he attended the Anatolia...

, Daniel Varujan

Daniel Varujan

Daniel Varujan or "Taniel Varujan" is one of the significant Armenian poets of the 20th century.He was one of the greatest Armenian poets of this century...

 and Siamanto

Siamanto

Atom Yarjanian , better known by his pen name Siamanto , was an influential Armenian writer, poet and national figure from the late 19th century and early 20th century. He was killed by the Ottoman authorities during the Armenian Genocide.- Life :He was born in 1878, in the town on Ağın on the...

.

During the Armenian genocide

Armenian Genocide

The Armenian Genocide—also known as the Armenian Holocaust, the Armenian Massacres and, by Armenians, as the Great Crime—refers to the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I...

, he stayed in Üsküdar

Üsküdar

Üsküdar is a large and densely populated municipality of Istanbul, Turkey, on the Anatolian shore of the Bosphorus. It is bordered on the north by Beykoz, on the east by Ümraniye, on the southeast by Ataşehir, on the south by Kadıköy, and on the west by the Bosphorus, with the areas of Beşiktaş,...

 on 24 April 1915. He was then arrested on 28 July 1915 and severely beaten at the Müdüriyet. When his father came to see him he was imprisoned as well. Father and son were both deported together with 26 Armenians to Nicomedia

Nicomedia

Nicomedia was an ancient city in what is now Turkey, founded in 712/11 BC as a Megarian colony and was originally known as Astacus . After being destroyed by Lysimachus, it was rebuilt by Nicomedes I of Bithynia in 264 BC under the name of Nicomedia, and has ever since been one of the most...

 (modern İzmit

Izmit

İzmit is a city in Turkey, administrative center of Kocaeli Province as well as the Kocaeli Metropolitan Municipality. It is located at the Gulf of İzmit in the Sea of Marmara, about east of Istanbul, on the northwestern part of Anatolia. The city center has a population of 294.875...

) and jailed in the Armenian

Armenian

Armenian may refer to:* Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Western Asia.* Armenians, persons from Armenia, or of Armenian descent...

 church that was converted into a prison. They were both stabbed to death together with his father near Derbent on 16 August 1915.

After Harutiunian's death his poems were published in separate books in Paris (1937) and Yerevan (1968).

The main topics of Harutiunian's poetry are love, romantics and humanism ("The Tramp in the Night", "Dawn", "Windows").

Sources

• "Armenian Question", encyclopedia, ed. by acad. K. Khudaverdyan, Yerevan, 1996, p. 283
• "Tseghin sirte", Western Armenia
  Western Armenia
  Western Armenia is a term, primarily used by Armenians, to refer to Armenian-inhabited areas of the Armenian Highland that were part of the Ottoman Empire and now are part of the Republic of Turkey....
  
  n poetry, Yerevan
  Yerevan
  Yerevan is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's oldest continuously-inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerevan is the administrative, cultural, and industrial center of the country...
  
  , Arevik publ., 1991, ISBN 5-8077-0300-6, p. 706 (biography in Armenian)
• The Heritage of Armenian Literature: Volume III—From the Eighteenth Century to Modern Times, Edited by Agop J. Hacikyan, Edward S. Franchuk, Nourhan Ouzounian, and Gabriel Basmajian