Turkey’s Sozcu newspaper touched upon the decision to depict Armenian novelist, playwright William Saroyan on the new Armenian banknotes released by the Central Bank of Armenia.  

“The design and paper of Armenian 5,000 AMD banknote has changed. And, Armenian writer William Saroyan, who migrated from Bitlis to USA, is pictured on it. Along with Saroyan, the banknotes depict chessplayer Tigran Petrosyan, Komitas and Aivazovsky”, the newspaper writes.

However, let us note that Saroyan was not born in Bitlis, but his father did.  The writer was born in U.S. In 1960s Saroyan traveled to Bitlis and visited the ruins of his father’s house.