There is an inexplicable force that has charmed and continues to charm not only Armenian writers and artists, but great foreign writers and artists starting from James Joyce, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Henry Miller and leading up to Saroyan. They have lived in that city and have created “works that have made them famous”.

Shahnur, Sarafyan, Shushanyan, Narduni, Arshak Chopanyan, Buzand Topalyan, Hrach Zardaryan, Zareh Vorbuni, Zulal Gazantchyan, Grigor Pltyan and Movses Pchaktchian are the Armenian writers who have lived in Paris. The last two still live there and have published their best works in Paris.

Inspired by their lives in Paris, both Armenian and foreign writers have created works that are of literary value.
Without going into detail, let’s focus on Movses Pchaktchian whose book “The Stranger With Luminescent Eyes” is being republished in Yerevan. The book was first published by “R” publishing house 17 years ago, followed by the second publication by “Hayastan” publishing house in 2010. The last pages of the book include Pchaktchian’s short story called “Unpredictable”, two opinions of the above mentioned novel and Pchaktchian’s biography. The first is signed by Vehanush Tekeyan, and the other-“Writer With Luminescent Eyes”-by Anahit Sargsyan. Very few Diaspora Armenian writers have received this privilege, much less a the same writer with the same novel twice.

During the years of Soviet Armenia, even pro-Communist Diaspora Armenian writers hadn’t received this honor. How can one not envy Pchaktchian? Movses Pchaktchian deserved this. He is the meritorious prose writer of our days who has the ability to understand and write, and is a playwright and poet as well. Pchaktchian is the author of over ten volumes. Somewhere he had written that “Onlyafter thirty did I realize that I was infected with the writing fever”, and it was under the influence of that fever that he wrote “The Stranger with Luminescent Eyes”, which is one of the novels that expresses his thoughts.

Currently, there are not too many Diaspora Armenian enlightened writers like the previous generation of writers. Like elsewhere, Armenian literature has also declined in the Diaspora.

One of the two or three Diaspora Armenian writers I know is Movses Pchaktchian, whose books transfer readers to Paris where great Armenian writers have lived and created, “especially during the unforgettable years of the 1930s.”
Pchaktchian is the continuation of the generation of writers such as Shahan Shahnur (“Vorbuni”), Hrach Zardarian and others with his special attributes that, I think, are as much as the attributes of his predecessors. Like his predecessors, Pchaktchian also portrays the life of an Armenian writer in Paris in his books of which the most notable is “The Stranger with Luminescent Eyes”, which expresses the thoughts and feelings of the protagonist.

Armenian writers have faced and still face hardships in the Diaspora. A Diaspora Armenian writer’s concerns are different from the concerns of an Armenian writer living in Armenia. A clairvoyant literary critic living here and there can describe them very easily. In this novel, Pchaktchian clearly presents his concerns, as well as the concerns of any other Diaspora Armenian writer. After all, being born as an Armenian in the Diaspora, receiving Armenian education, establishing relations with foreigners, starting a family, raising children, marrying them to Armenians and passing on the Armenian identity to your grandchildren don’t come easy for Diaspora Armenian writers, and Diaspora Armenians in general. They are psychological conflicts that come into play with your innate feelings and emotions. This is a topic for long discussion, but I would like to stop here. On the 68th page of the novel it is stated: The movement “Life had to go on” was his only expression”.

I wish that Pchaktchian continues to be active and goal-oriented like his characters Knashar and Ayrashar, like the metro in Paris that always moves forward to reach its destination.

I am very content with Pchaktchian’s goal of moving toward Yerevan. True, we all know Paris, but Yerevan is different with its literary and cultural life. Everyone has a different opinion, but this is my conviction, my belief. In the last lines of his novel, Pchaktchian writes: “The greatest punishment of mankind is loneliness, the greatest favor is privacy.”

I wish that Pchaktchian the human being never feels lonely, and that Pchaktchian the writer has days and hours of privacy because only in privacy does a writer come up with new ideas and create new works.

Let’s not forget that our beloved Movses-“The Stranger With Luminescent Eyes”-said “It is all up to the writer.”

Margar Sharapkhanian (author of the article in photo)

May 26, 2011, Yerevan

Read at the Writers’ Union of ArmeniaWriter Movses Pchaktchian has been living in Paris and creating in that magical city of France for decades.
For many years, Paris has been a city that has pulled Western-Armenian writers like a magnet, while being a city of lights and arts as well.