Fresno Bee, CA
June 15 2008

Armenia hasn’t forgotten Saroyan

By Haykaram Nahapetyan / Special To The Bee 06/15/08 00:00:00

YEREVAN, Armenia — William Saroyan was born 100 years ago and 7,000
miles away. But Armenia is determined to remember him.

Saroyan was a Fresno-born author and writer for stage and screen who
became a celebrity before World War II with books such as "The Human
Comedy" and plays such as "The Time of Your Life."

To mark the centennial year, government and cultural leaders have
launched a dizzying array of initiatives and commemorative
events. There will be a statue of Saroyan in the capital city of
Yerevan, new translations of his work, stamps, medals, competitions,
scholarships and even a street named in his honor. "He was one of the
best authors of the 20th century," said Varduhi Varderesian, a popular
Armenian actress who has played roles in Saroyan plays and met the
author when he visited in the 1970s.

"We have to rediscover him this year," she said. "There is a fear lest
the new generation gradually forget about Saroyan."

Saroyan wrote only in English. But some of his first works were
published in an Armenian-American journal, and he often wrote about
Armenia and emigrants like his parents. He spoke Armenian and visited
the country with increasing frequency in his later years.

Saroyan died on May 18, 1981. On that day this year, a delegation of
officials, students and teachers led by Hasmik Poghosian, Armenia’s
minister of culture, visited the tomb in Yerevan where half of
Saroyan’s ashes rest. The other half is in Fresno.

"We have to remember Saroyan not only this year, in 2008, but all the
time," Poghosian said.

The centennial has sparked interest among ordinary Armenians, said
Satenik Avagian, library director at the American University of
Armenia. Books by Saroyan are being checked out nearly half again as
much this year, compared to 2007, he said.

"Not only AUA students, but also lecturers, Armenians and Americans,
read his books," Avagian said. "Many of them say they are reading
William Saroyan for the first time."

The appeal is more than a matter of nostalgia, said writer Artem
Harutyunyan.

"Saroyan is topical nowadays, as well, because, in this age of arms
and industrialization, he retained his human warmth and virtues," he
said.

Much of the campaign to draw attention to Saroyan is focused on the
classroom. Days dedicated to studying Saroyan are planned at more than
200 schools across Armenia, said Silva Achoyan, a Yerevan city
official.

Armenian education officials are introducing the author to third-grade
students by including one of his short stories in textbooks. The
literature book for seventh graders contains passages from Saroyan’s
1939 play "My Heart is in the Highlands." He also is featured in a new
textbook for 10th graders about writers around the world whose
families left the country in what is called the Armenian diaspora.

Education officials also have organized an essay contest about the
writer this year.

Several of Saroyan’s works are being translated for new editions in
Armenian, said Karine Khodikian, the nation’s deputy culture
minister. Khodikian headed a delegation that visited Fresno in
February and returned with several books by Saroyan in English that
were virtually unknown in Armenia.

And two plays based on Saroyan’s stories have been staged in Armenia
in recent months.

Posters dedicated to Saroyan — some showing the writer on his
trademark bicycle — can be seen across Yerevan: in the streets, in
bookshops, at the Academy of Sciences. Postcards in Armenian and
English have been issued as well.

"I do not write in Armenian, but I look at the world in Armenian,"
some of the posters say, quoting the writer.

A statue of the author by Armenian sculptor Davit Yerevantsi is taking
shape in a Prague studio. Nearly 11 feet tall, the statue is to be
erected in the center of Yerevan in August, the month Saroyan was
born, and formally unveiled in November.

The writer also is being honored with a Yerevan street in his name,
stamps bearing the words "Saroyan 100," and commemorative
medals. Linguistics students at Yerevan State University have started
competing for the Saroyan scholarship. A Saroyan 100 international
theater festival is planned for September, and a literary conference
in October hopes to draw Saroyan experts from around the world.

Perhaps the most offbeat tribute comes from Yura Muradian, an Armenian
animator who plans to show a cartoon based on two of the author’s
short stories –titled "Bitlis," the hometown of Saroyan’s family —
in Yerevan at the Golden Apricot international film festival next
month.

Of all the Armenians participating in the celebration of Saroyan’s
centennial, perhaps none is as excited as one 9-year-old boy at a
Yerevan school that, strangely enough, is called the William Saroyan
School.

The boy’s name: William Saroyan.

"I do not know what job I will do when I grow up, but I am quite sure
he is my favorite writer," young William Saroyan said. The author’s
short story "The Stolen Bicycle" is the work he likes best of all.

"In one of Saroyan’s stories, a pupil says to the headmaster, ‘I’m
Armenian and I’m proud of that,’ " the boy said. "So I’m proud that
Saroyan is Armenian, too."

Haykaram Nahapetyan is a freelance journalist based in Yerevan. He has
worked for the Noyan Tapan press agency and served as foreign news
editor of the English-language weekly Noyan Tapan Highlights. Since
2003, he has been a political commentator

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From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress