Статуэтка Абовян Хачатур Аветикович

Khachatur Avetikovich Abovyan (1809-1848) was an Armenian writer, educator, teacher and ethnographer. He was born in the village of Kanaker not far from Yerevan. He received his first education at Echmiadzin and at the Nersesov Seminary in Tiflis. He graduated from the famous Dorpat University in the Estonian city of Tartu. He opened the first school in Armenia which was based on European pedagogical principles. His most significant work is the historical novel «Wounds of Armenia», written in the living national Armenian language «Ashkharabar». The name itself suggests that this novel is patriotic. Abovyan depicted the plight of Armenians under Persian occupation. The hero of the novel, Agasi, opened a gallery of images of the «ideal citizen and patriot», that positive personality, which many writers were subsequently busy reproducing. Agasi was the predecessor of the upcoming patriots-peoplelovers of the second half of the 19th century. This work of Abovyan won the right for the new Armenian language to exist in the literature, despite the fact that before they wrote in the ancient Armenian «grabar», or in «mijin hayeren», it laid the foundations of the eastern new Armenian literature. The novel «Wounds of Armenia» is also interesting for its political tendency. Abovyan was an adversary of Persia with a focus on Russia. Abovyan was also a good expert in the Kurdish language, folklore and everyday life. Some of his works concerning this topic appeared in print in Russian in the Tiflis newspaper Kavkaz. He was the first to climb the holy Mount Ararat with Professor Parrot of Dorpat University, his alma-mater, in 1829. In the spring of 1848 he was preparing to leave for Tiflis to accept the post of headmaster of the Nersisyan school, but went missing.