Chobanian, Arshak

Chobanian, Arshak 

Born July 15, 1872, in Istanbul; died June 9, 1954, in Paris. Armenian writer, critic, and historian. Wrote in Armenian and French.

In 1885, Chobanian moved to Paris, where he published the journal Anait from 1898 to 1911 and from 1929 to 1949. He attempted to attract western support for the liberation of the Armenian people from the Ottoman yoke. He was one of the first prominent Armenians outside Russia to embrace the October Revolution of 1917.

In the 1930’s and 1940’s, Chobanian published in Anait material dealing with the culture and arts of Soviet Armenia. His works Armenia, Its History and Literature and Its Role in the East (1897) and Armenian Folk Singers (1906) are widely known. Chobanian’s work The Beauty of Armenia (1918–29) is an outstanding monument of Armenian culture.

WORKS

Kyanb a erad. Paris, 1945.
Eoker. Yerevan, 1966.
Petros Dolryani kyank’n olgortse. Yerevan, 1967.

REFERENCES

Veselovskii, Iu. “Populiarizator armianskoi slovesnosti vo Frantsii.” In Ocherki armianskoi literatury i zhizni. Armavir, 1906.
Briusov, V. Poeziia Armenii. Yerevan, 1966.
Hapeshyan, H. Arshak Ch’opanyan. Paris, 1924.
Fenerchyan, G. Arshak Ch’opanyan. Paris, 1938.