Tlgadintsi

[1] He is credited with giving the first authoritative response to a call from Constantinople's Armenian intelligentsia, issued in the early 1890s, for writing firmly rooted in the village life of historic Western Armenia.

[2] Tlgadintsi's unique realist works range from probing the darkest corners of village life to revisiting cherished moments of childhood.

By 1878, Tlgadintsi had completed his studies at the Smpadian School and embarked on his dual career as village schoolmaster and journalist, this in the immediate aftermath of the Russo-Ottoman War of 1877-78 which had left the Armenian populace of the Ottoman Empire in widespread misery.

[3] He found his first teaching position in the village of Chunkoush (Çüngüş), and he established himself as a writer with the reports he sent to the Constantinople (Istanbul) newspapers Arevelk and Masis through the 1880s.

In an era when thousands of his compatriots were abandoning their homeland for America, Tlgadintsi stood staunchly opposed to the wave of emigration.

[4] In 1903, in the course of a crackdown on Armenian militants, Tlgadintsi was arrested and thrown in jail for nine months as a supposed subversive, along with his leading disciple, Rupen Zartarian.

One day, Tlgadintsi was completely devastated to learn that in a moment of panic his friend had set fire to the entire collection and reduced it to ash.