Hmayak Siras

[3] He studied at a local school until the age of fourteen, when the Armenian genocide forced his family to flee to Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia.

[1] Between 1922 and 1940, Siras continued to publish novels and short stories, ranging from strictly realistic to those incorporating legendary elements.

[5] By this time, he had adopted the pen name Hmayak Siras, which he took from the Henryk Sienkiewicz novel Kamo Ridge.

[3] After the completion of academic military courses, he was appointed to the rank of major and was made editor-translator of Armenian publications in the Main Political Department of the Ministry of Defence.

His most notable novel, a historical epic titled The Native Land, was published in Armenian in 1974 and in Russian in 1979.

[2] Hmayak Siras married Tamara Askanazovna Voskanian (née Zakharyan) in 1925.

The Armenian government installed a memorial plaque on the building of the house in which he lived his final years.

Hmayak Siras in uniform, 1942
Writers Union of Armenia, 1947; Siras is second from the left, top row