{{more citations needed|date=September 2009}} thumb|right|Vrtanes Papazian '''Vrtanes Papazian''' ({{langx|hy|Վրթանէս Փափազեան}}{{Efn|Reformed orthography: {{lang|hy|Վրթանես Փափազյան}}}} {{IPA|hy|vəɾtʰɑˈnɛs pʰɑpʰɑˈzjɑn|}}; 12 April 1866 – 26 April 1920) was an Armenian writer, public figure, literary critic, literary historian, editor, teacher and translator.
==Biography== Vrtanes Papazian was born in the city of Van in the Ottoman Empire on 12 April 1866.<ref name="RNp296">{{Cite book |last=Nanumian |first=R.|chapter=Vrtʻanes Pʻapʻazyan |script-chapter=hy:Վրթանես Փափազյան |script-title=hy:Հայ նոր գրականության պատմություն |title=Hay nor grakanutʻyan patmutʻyun|volume=4 |location=Yerevan|publisher=Armenian SSR Academy of Sciences Publishing House |year=1972 |editor-first1=Kh. S.|editor-last1=Sargsian|editor-first2=S. B.|editor-last2=Aghababian|display-editors=1 |language=hy |trans-title=''History of modern Armenian literature''|url=https://haygirk.nla.am/upload/1941-/grakanutyan_patmutyun4_1972.pdf|OCLC=23118542|page=296}}</ref> His father, Mesrop Papazian, was a priest, public figure, writer, and educator who founded the first Iranian Armenian theater group in Tabriz in 1879.<ref name=":0">{{cite book |last=Ohanian |first=A. |title=Haykakan sovetakan hanragitaran |title-link=Armenian Soviet Encyclopedia |publisher=Haykakan hanragitarani glkhavor khmbagrutʻyun |year=1986 |editor-last=Arzumanian |editor-first=Makich |volume=12 |location=Yerevan |page=[https://hy.wikisource.org/wiki/%D4%B7%D5%BB:%D5%80%D5%A1%D5%B5%D5%AF%D5%A1%D5%AF%D5%A1%D5%B6_%D5%8D%D5%B8%D5%BE%D5%A5%D5%BF%D5%A1%D5%AF%D5%A1%D5%B6_%D5%80%D5%A1%D5%B6%D6%80%D5%A1%D5%A3%D5%AB%D5%BF%D5%A1%D6%80%D5%A1%D5%B6_(Soviet_Armenian_Encyclopedia)_12.djvu/326 326] |language=hy |script-title=hy:Հայկական սովետական հանրագիտարան |trans-title=Armenian Soviet Encyclopedia |chapter=Pʻapʻazyan Mesrop (Martiros) Hayrapeti |script-chapter=hy:Փափազյան Մեսրոպ (Մարտիրոս) Հայրապետի}}</ref> His family is said to have had Armenian Roma ancestry.<ref>{{cite book |last=Bardakjian |first=Kevork B. |title=A Reference Guide to Modern Armenian Literature 1500-1920 |publisher=Wayne State University Press |year=2000 |isbn=0-8143-2747-8 |location=Detroit |pages=193}}</ref> Among Vrtanes's siblings were Vahan Papazian, who became a member in the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, and Nerses Papazian, a priest who was one of those arrested on 24 April 1915 and killed during the Armenian genocide.<ref name="armenica.info2">{{cite web |title=Деятели Армянской церкви |url=http://armenica.info/church/deyat/26.htm |access-date=2014-05-19 |publisher=Armenica.info}}</ref> He received his earliest education from his father.<ref name="RNp296"/> In 1868, he moved with his parents to Agulis (now in the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic of Azerbaijan, then in the Russian Empire),<ref name="HSH">{{cite book |last=Ohanian |first=A. |title=Haykakan sovetakan hanragitaran |title-link=Armenian Soviet Encyclopedia |publisher=Haykakan hanragitarani glkhavor khmbagrutʻyun |year=1986 |editor-last=Arzumanian |editor-first=Makich |volume=12 |location=Yerevan |pages=[https://hy.wikisource.org/wiki/%D4%B7%D5%BB:%D5%80%D5%A1%D5%B5%D5%AF%D5%A1%D5%AF%D5%A1%D5%B6_%D5%8D%D5%B8%D5%BE%D5%A5%D5%BF%D5%A1%D5%AF%D5%A1%D5%B6_%D5%80%D5%A1%D5%B6%D6%80%D5%A1%D5%A3%D5%AB%D5%BF%D5%A1%D6%80%D5%A1%D5%B6_(Soviet_Armenian_Encyclopedia)_12.djvu/327 327]-328 |language=hy |script-title=hy:Հայկական սովետական հանրագիտարան |trans-title=Armenian Soviet Encyclopedia |chapter=Pʻapʻazyan Vrtʻanes Mesropi |script-chapter=hy:Փափազյան Վրթանես Մեսրոպի}}</ref> where he attended the local Armenian school.<ref name="RNp296"/> From 1875 to 1878, he attended the Aramian School, an Armenian institution in Tabriz. From 1878 to 1879, he studied at the Gevorgian Seminary in Etchmiadzin. He began working at the age of fifteen and took various jobs, such as laborer, photographer, and telegraph worker.<ref name="HSH"/> He lived in Shamakhi and then in Baku.<ref name=":1">{{cite book |last1=Hacikyan |first1=Agop Jack |author-link1=Agop Jack Hacikyan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GmtPLvnrc38C |title=The Heritage of Armenian Literature, Volume III: From the Eighteenth Century to Modern Times |last2=Basmajian |first2=Gabriel |last3=Franchuk |first3=Edward S. |last4=Ouzounian |first4=Nourhan |date=2005 |publisher=Wayne State University Press |isbn=0-8143-3221-8 |location=Detroit, Michigan |pages=570-572}}</ref> He published his first written works in the newspaper ''Ardzagank'' in 1883, mainly moralistic stories with Romantic features. He also wrote a novel (not published at the time) titled ''Knashrjike'' (The sleepwalker) where he showed interest in exploring the issues of contemporary life.<ref name="RNp296" />
He moved to Constantinople in 1885, where he wrote for the newspapers ''Masis'' and ''Arevelyan mamul'', publishing works on life in Eastern countries and on social issues.<ref name="RNp296" /> From 1887 to 1889, he worked as a teacher in Erzurum, where he became acquainted with an Armenian revolutionary circle. He traveled around Ottoman Armenia, publishing his impressions in a series of articles for the Russian Armenian newspaper ''Mshak''.<ref name="HSH" /> He eventually enrolled at the University of Geneva, graduating from the department of literature and social sciences in 1894. Papazian taught for many years at various schools in cities such as Van, Erzurum, Tiflis, Tehran, Shusha, Bucharest, Bursa, Nukha, and Etchmiadzin. In 1894, in Tiflis, he edited the illegal newspaper ''Kriv'', the organ of the Armenian Workers' Revolutionary Association. From 1894 to 1896, he edited the weekly ''Shavigh'' in Tehran. From 1911 to 1912, he was the de facto editor of the weekly ''Gharabagh'', published in Shusha. He also wrote for various other Armenian, Russian, and European newspapers. For his revolutionary activities, Papazian was constantly targeted by the Russian authorities. He was imprisoned three times and was placed under police surveillance. Some of his works were banned and destroyed, and his manuscripts and books were confiscated.<ref name="HSH" /> He was one of the Armenian public figures meant to be arrested on 24 April 1915 at the start of the Armenian genocide, but he managed to escape to Bulgaria and from there went to Russia.<ref name="teodar16">{{Cite book |last=Teotig |author-link=Teotig |title= |publisher=G. Keshishian |year=1919 |location=Constantinople |language=hy |script-title=hy:Ամէնուն Տարեցոյցը 1916–1920: Ժ-ԺԴ. տարի |trans-title=''Everybody's almanac 1916–1920: year 10–14''}}</ref> He suffered from financial difficulties in his last years<ref name=":1" /> and died in Yerevan on 26 April 1920.<ref name=":0" />
==Literary works== thumb|Grave of Vrtanes Papazian, Pantheon cemetery in Yerevan
The writing of Vrtanes Papazian addressed national and social conditions and the survival of the Armenian people. The writer compared Armenian life and culture against the historical and contemporary standards of other nations. His work included prose, dramaturgy, poetry, literary criticism, history of literature, production, music, pedagogy, linguistics, translation, logic, and psychology.
Early writings of Papazian are about the life of Western Armenians. During the 1890s these stories appeared in the press. Later they were published in two books: ''Scenes from the Life of Turkish Armenians'' (1889) and ''Stories from the Life of Turkish Armenians'' (1904). Speaking about the horrors by Turks and Kurds, he did not ignore the national oppressors showing that their conduct was equally horrible.
Papazian condemned servility and fawn, setting forward tragic scenes from Western Armenian struggle against the organizers of genocide and creating characters of valiant individuals ("Kheran", "Lightning", "Light Pleasures", "The Dying are Greeting You"). He holds a relentless debate against any vicious opinion. The novel ''Emma'' strongly criticizes some national parties as being separated from the nation. While based in European countries far from the homeland these parties proclaim themselves as leaders of struggle against tyranny.
Papazian knew fourteen languages and translated the works of a number of authors into Armenian, including Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin, Leo Tolstoy, Alphonse Daudet, Nariman Narimanov, Erckmann-Chatrian, Friedrich Nietzsche and Chekri Ganem.<ref name="HSH"/>
== Notes == {{Notelist}}
==References== {{commons category}} {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Papazian, Vrtanes}} Category:Ethnic Armenian translators Category:Armenian-language writers Category:19th-century writers from the Ottoman Empire Category:1920 deaths Category:1866 births Category:People from Van, Turkey Category:Armenian people in the Ottoman Empire Category:University of Geneva alumni Category:19th-century Armenian male writers Category:19th-century translators