As a left-winger who ultimately joined the Social Democratic Party, he took a side in public controversies, defending the political line espoused by Nicolae Titulescu and attacking Stelian Popescu.

Carol finally staged a coup against the Romanian Regency on June 6, 1930, isolating his opponents and taking the thone for himself; Kalustian and the "old political reporter" Paul Costin were tasked with removing anti-Carlist content from that night's edition of Curentul.

[9] These events, Kalustian notes, meant that Curentul had to move from "diatribes to dithyrambs" when it came to Carol; in order to ensure an "indirect transition", he was tasked with focusing all attention on the "Georgist" Liberals, which were new and radical arrivals on the Romanian political scene.

[2] As an adversary in such polemics, Petre Pandrea recorded his belief that Kalustian was an agent of the interwar secret service, or Siguranța, who primarily informed his superiors about the goings-on in journalist circles.

"[4] The claims were partly confirmed by a Siguranța report of November 1934, which suggests that he continued to work as an informant for Eugen Cristescu after the latter had been ousted from his position as director of that agency.

[12] Early that year, Rampa announced that Kalustian had completed a political novel on the Škoda Affair, but that state censorship was sure to confiscate it: "The author will print it, though, if not for the general public then at least for his friends.

"[17]In July 1936, Kalustian concentrated on warning his readers about the unchecked excesses of fascist paramilitaries from both the Iron Guard and the Lăncieri: "the capital's streets are taken over by gangs of blue- or green-shirted individuals, calling themselves 'students'.

[22] At the time, Universul saw Kalustian, Geo Bogza and Mircea Damian as press agents for the Jewish industrialist Max Auschnitt, "commissioned to besmirch, with their Judaic mud, with their filthy posters and rags, all men who espouse the notion of a Romanian rebirth".

In November of that year, Titulescu made a return visit to Romania; Gavrilă Marinescu's Police closely monitored those in contact with him, including both Kalustian and Stelian Popescu.

[25] Kalustian was still featured with sports commentary in Cezar Petrescu's România, where, in September, he chronicled the national football team's defeat by a Greater Germany squad.

[26] In his memoirs, diplomat Constantin Virgil Gheorghiu alleges that Kalustian had a more secretive role at România—namely, ensuing that the newspaper stayed in line with government policies dictated by Armand Călinescu, the FRN Interior Minister.

[28] In his memoirs, Carandino made a note of his employment there and his good pay at a time when "many of my left-wing colleagues were unemployed"; he also recounts that Kalustian and Emil Serghie negotiated the terms of his recruitment.

[25] After the August 1944 coup and during the latter stages of World War II, Kalustian returned to public life as a moderate left-wing journalist, rejecting collaboration with the Communist Party.

[38] In December 1960, a search of his home resulted in the seizure of hundreds of books, rare editions, manuscripts, documents, magazines, important works of Romanian and world literature.

[2][36] Among these were Stere's În preajma revoluției, Queen Marie's Povestea vieții mele, Mustul care fierbe by Octavian Goga and the Memoirs of King Carol I, all considered dangerous for the socialist order.

[42] Kalustian's first book, the 1975 Facsimile, appeared late;[1] it comprised in large part his literary correspondence with teacher Nicolae Bănescu, and, Cioculescu notes, revealed the author's "exceptional sensitivity" and "frantic dedication" to his subject.

The Bănescu letters expanded on historical-biographical studies on figures such as C. A. Rosetti, Nicolae Iorga and George Vâlsan, focusing on details that Kalustian selected as especially moving.

[3] In December 1977, Kalustian was one of 21 men and women who expressed solidarity with the communist regime, against the dissident movement launched by Paul Goma; the list, which was kept in the Securitate archive, also included public intellectuals such as Constantin Abăluță, Eugen Barbu, Fănuș Neagu, Zigu Ornea, Marin Preda and Dan Zamfirescu.

[1][2][54] Commenting on their literary classification, critic Al. Dobrescu found Kalustian the essayist to be midway between Iorga and Lazăr Șăineanu, "but without the former's stylistic vigor or the latter's meticulousness.

The critic was upset that Kalustian never seemed interested in recounting his personal meetings with N. D. Cocea and George Mihail Zamfirescu, with the articles on them veering into a "deluge of musings, either restrained or pathetic, about the human condition, the cruelties of life, and other such things.

[58] Unconfirmed rumors circulating by word of mouth had it that Kalustian had been preparing a more acid set of memoirs, called Requiem la o meserie care nu mai există.

[60] According to Florescu, during one such encounter in May 1980 (shortly after Coman's death) Kalustian made several accurate predictions about the outcome of the US presidential election, the eventual breakup of Yugoslavia, and the global fall of communism.

[61] Florescu also reports that, in early 1983, Kalustian and Carandino, together with lawyer Mircea Traian Biju, were engaged in a conspiracy to foment revolt against communist leader Nicolae Ceaușescu.

[62] In June of that year, thanks to the efforts of Păunescu and Dumitru Radu Popescu,[49] the Romanian Writers' Union granted Kalustian an unofficial pension; his name later disappeared from the membership list.

[2] A late contribution, praised by fellow author Gheorghe Tomozei for its "delicate ardor", was a review of the Romanian football team's performance at UEFA Euro 1984;[63] another was his preface to a book of memoirs by the left-wing peasant activist Ion D. Isac, which was published by Editura Eminescu in 1987.

[64] Bookseller Marius Nicolescu notes that, in the 1980s, Kalustian, like George Carabas and Radu Sterescu, was engaging in a semi-legal book trade: "Sometimes in defiance of the authorities and their laws, and sometimes with [their] indulgent complicity".

[65] At that stage, Florescu had come under surveillance for his participation in the black market in coffee and other goods; as he reports, the Securitate, which handled his interrogation, asked about his contacts with Kalustian and Carandino, whom it branded "enemies of the people".

[66] During the 1984–1985 winter, the rooms were left unheated due to the Ceaușescu's austerity policies; unlike his friend and neighbor Alexandru Rosetti, Kalustian did not qualify for state assistance.

As he notes, that writing, along with the complementary novel Cartea regelui romantic și a fiilor fără de țară, is all that endures from the Kalustian–Arachelian conversations, in which the latter was tying to persuade the former into dictating a "subjective history" of Carol's reign.

His centennial in October 2008 was celebrated by Focșani officials, including Angel Tîlvăr, and the Union of Armenians of Romania, with the participation of Arachelian, Baronian, and Varujan Pambuccian; Ionuț Ladea completed a bust of Kalustian, but not in time to be unveiled for that ceremony.