Otyan Yervand, an Armenian satiric writer, journalist, publicist. He studied at Perperyan Gymnasium of Constantinople. His works were published in press starting from 1887. By the invitation of A. Arpiaryan he became the editor's assistant (1892-95), then the editor of (1896) "Hayreniq" (Moterland) daily. He was in the "unreliable persons" list of authorities in Turkey. In August 1896 Otyan secretly moved from Constantinople. After the Young Turks revolution (1908) he came back. During the "Mets Eghern" (the Armenian Genocide) he was exiled to the desert of Deir ez-Zor. Miraculously saved he returned to Constantinople again in 1918, in 1922 he moved to Bucharest, in 1924 to Tripoli (Lebanon) and in 1925 he moved to Cairo. He published number of satirical periodicals ("Azat Khosk" (Free Speech), "Azat Bem" (Free Stage), 1903-06, "Krak" (Fire), 1905, in Alexandria, "Karaptnat" 1910, "Sev Katu" (Black Cat), 1912, "Manana", 1913-14, "Ignat Agha" 1919-20, "Yergitsakan Taretsuts" (Satirical Annual), 1921-22, in Constantinople). Otyan's feuilletons and pamphlets were a new in the Armenian classical prose: the short stories of "Parasites of Revolution" (1898-99), novellas "War and Peace" (1911), "The Propagandist" (1901) and trilogy "Comrade B. Panjuni". He mocked those national figures that pretend to be patriots but in reality, they violate, abuse the sacred ideas. Otyan greatly contributed to the development of the Armenian social satire. In the short stories "Money-lender" (1893), "Good Executioner" (1899), "Hambardzum Agha" (1904), in the novellas "The National Benefactor" (1905), "Love Affair of Mikey" (1906), "The Letters of the Merchant or the art of being a Perfect Man" (1914) and in the novels "Intermediary Daddy" (1895-1920), "Family, Honour, Morality" (1910) Otyan mocked the social-moral, family and everyday vices of the society. Otyan depicted the struggle against the Hamidian dictatorship in the historical-adventurous novel "Abdul Hamid and Sherlock Holmes" (1911). His "feuilleton" novels and chronicles are of cognitive and artistic value. He considered repatriation to be a guarantee for national preservation. Otyan is the author of comedies, memoirs and satirical portraits. He translated the novels "Resurrection" and "Anna Karenina" by L. Tolstoy (1911), the works of Emile Zola, F. Dostoyevsky, M. Gorky, M. Twain, etc.

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Yervand Otyan

Writer