Arpiar Arpiarian

Arpiar Arpiarian (Armenian: Արփիար Արփիարեան) (December 21, 1851 – February 12, 1908) was an influential 19th-century Armenian writer, the pioneer of realism in Armenian literature and a political activist.

Arpiar Arpiarian was born in 1851 aboard a ship as his parents, who were originally from Akn (an Armenian town on shore of the Euphrates prior to the Armenian Genocide), were traveling from Samsun to Constantinople. The family settled in the suburb of Ortakiugh (Ortaköy) where Arpiar attended the Tarkmanchats (Թարգմանչաց) Armenian school. In 1867, he was sent to Venice to attend the Murat-Raphaelian (Մուրատ-Ռափայէլեան) school. At Murat-Raphaelian, he studied Armenian language and history under the tutelage of Ghevond Alishan. He also became familiarized with French and Italian literature. He graduated from the school and returned to Constantinople where he was offered a secretarial position at the Armenian Patriarchate. During this time, he also worked as an accountant. However, Arpiarian's true calling was journalism and literature.

His first works in literature started in Grigor Artsruni's Mshak (Մշակ) newspaper, which was published in Tiflis. He would write articles under the pen name "Haygag" (Հայկակ) about various aspects of Armenian life in Constantinople, all of which were flavored with satire. By 1878, he had already become a regular contributor to dailies and periodicals, mainly in Masis, of which he was an editor (1884-1893) alongside famed Armenian writer and politician Krikor Zohrab. His articles became very popular among Caucasian Armenians. In 1884, he visited Tiflis on the occasion of the election of a new Catholicos in Echmiadzin where he was received as a renowned writer. There, he had the occasion to meet Eastern Armenian authors Raffi, Proshian, Aghayan and others.

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