{{Short description|Armenian writer (1935–2026)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=October 2022}} {{Infobox writer | name = Zori Balayan<br>{{nobold|{{lang|hy|Զորի Բալայան}}}} | image = Zoriy Balayan.JPG | caption = Balayan in 2010 | spouse = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{birth date|1935|02|10}} | birth_place = Stepanakert, Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast, Azerbaijan SSR, Transcaucasian SFSR, Soviet Union | death_date = {{death date and age|2026|04|05|1935|02|10}} | death_place = | education = | occupation = {{hlist|Author|novelist|journalist|sports doctor|traveler}} | movement = | children = | module = {{Infobox writer | embed = Yes | genre = | period = 1971–2026 | subject = | notableworks = | signature = | website = }} }}
'''Zori Hayki Balayan''' ({{langx|hy|Զորի Հայկի Բալայան}}, February 10, 1935 – April 5, 2026) was an Armenian novelist, journalist, sports doctor, traveler, and sports expert.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.wua.am/writers/balayan_zori/eng.htm |title=Balayan Zori |website=Armenian Writer's Union |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100124090411/http://www.wua.am/writers/balayan_zori/eng.htm |archive-date=January 24, 2010 |url-status=dead}}</ref> He was awarded the "Renowned master of the Arts" an Armenian official title.
==Life and career== Balayan was born in Stepanakert, Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (Azerbaijan SSR) on February 10, 1935. He graduated from the Ryazan State Medical University in 1963. From 1971 to 1973, he traversed the Kamchatka and Chokotskaya tundras on dog-sleds, traveling as far as the North Sea. In his essay "Hearth," published during the pre-perestroika era, he tried to demonstrate the Armenian identity of Nagorno-Karabakh and identified Nakhichevan as historically belonging to Armenia. He further regarded the Turks (including Azerbaijanis) as an enemy of both Russia and Armenia. Azerbaijani historian<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.labyrinth.ru/content/card.asp?cardid%3D27538 |script-title=ru:ГАМБАР Иса Юсы оглы (Гамбаров Иса Юнисович) |language=ru |trans-title=GAMBAR Isa Yusy oglu (Gambarov Isa Yunisovich) |website=Labyrinth |access-date=November 29, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130531013329/http://www.labyrinth.ru/content/card.asp?cardid=27538 |archive-date=May 31, 2013}}</ref> Isa Gambar criticized Balayan's book in an article entitled ''Old Songs and New Legends''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.isagambar.az/ocaq.htm |script-title=ru:Старые песни и новые легенды |language=ru |trans-title=Old Songs and New Legends |last1=Gambar |first=Isa |date=January 1985 |access-date=November 29, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120212205356/http://www.isagambar.az/ocaq.htm |archive-date=February 12, 2012}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |first1=Thomas |last1=de Waal |title=Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan through War and Peace |location=New York |publisher=NYU press |year=2003 |pages=142–143 |isbn=978-0814760321}}</ref> Azerbaijan destroyed even the remains of native Armenian ruins in Nakhchivan such as Armenian cemetery in Julfa.<ref name="SAE">{{cite book |last=Aivazian |first=Argam |author-link=Argam Aivazian |title=Armenian Soviet Encyclopedia Volume IX |publisher=Armenian Academy of Sciences |year=1983 |location=Yerevan |page=550 |contribution=Ջուղայի գերեզմանատուն (The Cemetery of Jugha)}}</ref><ref name="TheIndependent">{{cite news |last1=Castle |first1=Stephen |date=23 October 2011 |title=Azerbaijan 'flattened' sacred Armenian site |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/azerbaijan-flattened-sacred-armenian-site-480272.html |work=The Independent}}</ref><ref name="AAAS">{{cite web |date=8 December 2010 |title=High-Resolution Satellite Imagery and the Destruction of Cultural Artifacts in Nakhchivan, Azerbaijan |url=http://www.aaas.org/page/high-resolution-satellite-imagery-and-destruction-cultural-artifacts-nakhchivan-azerbaijan |publisher=American Association for the Advancement of Science}}</ref>
In 1988, he and Armenian poet Silva Kaputikyan were received by Mikhail Gorbachev and discussed the absence of Armenian-language television programs and textbooks in Nagorno-Karabakh schools as well as other concerns of Karabakh's majority-Armenian population.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/03/11/world/a-test-of-change-explodes-in-soviet.html |title=A Test of Change Explodes in Soviet |newspaper=The New York Times |last1=Barringer |first1=Felicity |last2=Keller |first2=Bill |date=March 11, 1988 |url-access=subscription |language=en |archive-date=March 4, 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120304041946/https://www.nytimes.com/1988/03/11/world/a-test-of-change-explodes-in-soviet.html}}</ref>
In October 1993, he signed the Letter of Forty-Two.<ref name=letter>{{cite news |script-title=ru:Писатели требуют от правительства решительных действий |url=http://vivovoco.rsl.ru/VV/PAPERS/HONOUR/LETT42.HTM |trans-title=Writers demand decisive action from the government |access-date=August 21, 2011 |newspaper=Izvestia |date=October 5, 1993 |language=ru |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716043414/http://vivovoco.rsl.ru/VV/PAPERS/HONOUR/LETT42.HTM |archive-date=July 16, 2011}}</ref>
Balayan was a journalist for the weekly Russian-language publication ''Literaturnaya Gazeta''.
Balayan died on April 5, 2026, at the age of 91.<ref>{{cite news |title=Մահացել է գրող, հրապարակախոս հասարակական և քաղաքական գործիչ Զորի Բալայանը |url=https://yerevan.today/mahacel-e-grogh-hraparakaxos-hasarakakan-ev-khaghakhakan-gortcich-zori-balayaneh/ |access-date=5 April 2026 |publisher=Yerevan Today |date=5 April 2026}}</ref>
==Book forgery== Sometime after the end of the First Nagorno-Karabakh War, a number of Azerbaijani and Turkish sources began to quote a passage from a book supposedly written by Balayan titled ''Revival of Our Souls'' (sometimes given as ''Revival of Our Spirits'' as well), wherein he confesses to brutally murdering an Azerbaijani child during the war. Balayan, as well as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia, have come out to deny him having ever written such a book.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.nkrusa.org/news/daily_news.php?id=768 |first1=Tamar |last1=Minasian |language=en |website=Office of Nagorno Karabakh Republic in the USA |title=Security & Foreign Affairs: Azeri Disinformation. Azerbaijani Masochism? |date=June 6, 2006 |access-date=September 7, 2012 |archive-date=February 28, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140228100838/http://www.nkrusa.org/news/daily_news.php?id=768 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.aysor.am/en/news/2009/12/25/pn/ |title=Armenia's Foreign Ministry shows up Azerbaijani disinformation |date=December 25, 2009 |website=aysor.am |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120305061402/http://www.aysor.am/en/news/2009/12/25/pn/ |archive-date=March 5, 2012 |url-status=live}}</ref> Ayşe Günaysu, a member of the Committee Against Racism and Discrimination of the Human Rights Association of Turkey (Istanbul branch), stated that "it should be quite obvious, from the language used in depicting the torture, that the quotation was wholly made up."<ref>{{Cite web |first1=Ayse |last1=Gunaysu |url=http://www.armenianweekly.com/2012/05/11/gunaysu-the-reign-of-lies-in-turkey/ |title=Gunaysu: The Reign of Lies in Turkey |date=May 11, 2012 |work=The Armenian Weekly |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120826234505/http://www.armenianweekly.com/2012/05/11/gunaysu-the-reign-of-lies-in-turkey/ |archive-date=August 26, 2012 |url-status=live}}</ref> Onur Caymaz, a Turkish writer, who originally backed the allegation, stated that he was wrong and that Balayan never wrote such a book.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Caymaz |first1=Onur |url=http://onurcaymaz.com/genel/zori-balayan-kimdir/ |title=Zori Balayan Kimdir? |language=tr |trans-title=Who is Zori Balayan? |date=March 1, 2012 |website=Onur Caymaz |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120305162548/http://onurcaymaz.com/genel/zori-balayan-kimdir/ |archive-date=March 5, 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
==Interpol refusing the arrest warrant== Azerbaijani authorities allege that Balayan was involved in a terrorist bombing of the metro in Baku in 1994. In a letter to Balayan, the general secretary of Interpol, however, stated that the agency considered the complaint politically motivated and that it had removed Balayan from its wanted list as a result.<ref>{{Cite web |first1=Tony |last1=Halpin |url=http://www.armenianow.com/?action=viewArticle&IID=1040&CID=1239&AID=1036&lng=eng&PHPSESSID=0f2c6b8e1 |title=Ship Shape: Cilicia completes second leg of its historic journey around Europe |language=en |date=September 2, 2005 |website=ArmeniaNow |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070926221319/http://www.armenianow.com/?action=viewArticle&IID=1040&CID=1239&AID=1036&lng=eng&PHPSESSID=0f2c6b8e1 |archive-date=September 26, 2007 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
==Critics in Armenia== Balayan's views on the annexation of Crimea by Russia and alleged lobbying<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.1in.am/rus/armenia_apress_41325.html |script-title=ru:В последние дни Зорий Балаян занят лоббистскими вопросами нового кандидата в премьеры: «Жоховурд» |language=ru |trans-title=In recent days, Zori Balayan has been busy with lobbying questions of a new candidate for prime minister: Zhokhovurd |access-date=March 18, 2014 |archive-date=March 18, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140318223704/http://www.1in.am/rus/armenia_apress_41325.html |url-status=dead}}</ref> activities were criticized by some Armenian politicians, including Igor Muradyan<ref>{{Cite web |last=Muradyan |first=Igor |date=March 18, 2014 |script-title=ru:Идиотизм и пошлость в одной ипостаси |language=ru |trans-title=Idiocy and vulgarity in one incarnation |url=https://www.lragir.am/ru/2014/03/18/35090/#sthash.xFIeMnGC.Gvx4mh9d.dpuf |website=www.lragir.am |access-date=July 12, 2021 |archive-date=July 12, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210712045615/https://www.lragir.am/ru/2014/03/18/35090/#sthash.xFIeMnGC.Gvx4mh9d.dpuf |url-status=dead }}</ref> and Levon Ter-Petrosian.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.inosmi.ru/sngbaltia/20140111/216373808.html |script-title=ru:В Армении майдан не состоялся из-за глубокого разочарования народа в Западе |language=ru |trans-title=In Armenia, the Maidan did not take place because of the deep disappointment of the people in the West |date=January 11, 2014 |website=Inosmi}}</ref> Balayan's letter to Putin, in which he implies that both Armenia and Karabakh are Russian soil, met harsh criticism in Armenia in 2013.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Musaelyan |first1=Lusine |date=October 14, 2013 |script-title=ru:Письмо Зория Балаяна Путину удостоилось резкой критики в Армении и Карабахе |url=https://rus.azatutyun.am/a/25136759.html |trans-title=Zori Balayan's letter to Putin received harsh criticism in Armenia and Karabakh |access-date=July 12, 2021 |website=Радио Свобода |language=ru}}</ref>
==Books== * ''My Cilicia'', (Russian), Yerevan, 2004 * ''Zim Kilikia'' (Armenian: Զիմ Կիլիկիա), Yerevan 2005 * ''Cilicia'' (Armenian: Կիլիկիա), vols. 2 and 3, Yerevan 2006–2007 * ''Chasm'', (Armenian and Russian), Yerevan, 2004 * ''Heaven and Hell'' (Armenian, Russian and English) Los Angeles, 1997, Yerevan, 1995 * ''Hearth'', Moscow 1984, Yerevan 1981 * ''Between Two Fires'', Yerevan 1979 * ''Blue roads'', Yerevan 1975 * ''Required Man's opinion'', (Russian) Yerevan 1974
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * [https://avproduction.am/?ln=am&page=person&id=937 Zori Balayan's biography]
{{National Heroes of Artsakh}} {{Armenian nationalism}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Balayan, Zori}} Category:1935 births Category:2026 deaths Category:Armenian writers in the Soviet Union Category:People from Stepanakert Category:Armenian journalists Category:Armenian people in sports Category:Armenian medical doctors Category:Sports medicine doctors Category:Armenian male novelists Category:Armenian people of the First Nagorno-Karabakh War Category:21st-century Armenian male writers Category:20th-century Armenian novelists Category:21st-century Armenian novelists Category:20th-century Armenian male writers Category:Soviet sports medicine doctors Category:Candidates for President of Armenia