By Gohar Makaryan
YEREVAN — Edmond Y. Azadian’s new Armenian-language book, With My Time and Contemporaries [Zhamanagi yev zhamanagagitsneru hed] was presented at the Tekeyan Center in Yerevan on September 19 in the presence of literary critics, teachers and well known figures of Armenian art and culture. Azadian is a writer, journalist, editor, literary critic and public figure who at present is president of the Tekeyan Cultural Association of the United States and Canada and member of the Armenian Democratic Liberal Party (ADL)’s Supreme Council.
This is Azadian’s sixth book. He is an overseas member of the Armenian Academy of Sciences, with an honorary doctorate from Yerevan State University.
Hagop Avedikian, the chief editor of the weekly Azg, and chairman of the ADL Central Committee, was the first speaker. He introduced Azadian’s prolific creative activities as a journalist and literary critic, declaring, “Throughout his full life, he has never been an observer — he has been a participant. He is a fighter and battler. Azadian’s weapon is his pen.”
Ruben Mirzakhanyan, president of the Tekeyan Cultural Association of Armenia and rector of the State Pedagogical University of Armenia, stressed in connection with the publication of Azadian’s new volume that Azadian was one of the great intellectuals of the diaspora. He said, “This is not an exaggeration … He is a man of whose quality we must be proud. This book is a great present to Armenian intellectuals.”
Petros Demirchyan, literary critic and vice president of the Writers Union of Armenia, presented Azadian’s contribution to literary criticism. He pointed out that it was thanks to his efforts that the works of several Western Armenian writers like Indra and Mikayel Giurdjian were saved from oblivion. Azadian donated Indra’s archive, which he had managed to preserve, to the Charents Museum of Literature and Art.