Arpiarian, Arpiar

Born 1851 in Constantinople; died 1908 in Cairo. Armenian writer and journalist.

For about 30 years, starting in 1877, Arpiarian published articles on the culture and political life of the western Armenians in the newspaper Mshak. In 1884 he founded the Armenian newspaper A re velk in Constantinople; he edited the literary newspaper Masis and, from 1891, the newspaper Airenik. Arpiarian brought together the best writers of his time around these publications. He contributed to the development of realistic literature. He published an anthology of novellas (Pictures of Life, 1885) and short stories. He welcomed the Russian revolution of 1905–07, and in the novella The Gold Bracelet he called for the overthrow of the capitalist system.