Aramayis Sahakyan

Born in the village of Bashkend (now Artsvashen) in the Krasnoselsk district of Armenia. In 1954 his first poem appeared in the newspaper "Pioner kanch" ("Pioneer's Call"). In 1955-60 he studied at the Faculty of History and Philology of the Kh. Abovyan Pedagogical Institute in Yerevan. In 1967 he attended the Higher Literary Courses of the Maxim Gorky Literature Institute in Moscow. He worked at the newspaper "Avangard" in 1960-65, at the literary journal "Garun" ("Spring") in 1967-70, and at the Central Committee of the Leninist Communist Youth Union of Armenia in 1970-71; in 1971-77 he worked at the State Committee for Television and Radio Broadcasting of Armenia as editor-in-chief of programmes for Armenians abroad, and then as editor-in-chief of youth programmes. From 1958 he was a member of the Writers' Union of Armenia, and from 1971 of the Journalists' Union of Armenia. In 1977-81 he was party secretary of the Writers' Union of Armenia. From 1982 until the end of his life he was editor-in-chief of the satirical magazine "Vozni" ("Hedgehog"). He received the A. Isahakyan Prize of the Writers' Union of Armenia and the RA Order of Honour in 1986, the "St. Mesrop Mashtots" commemorative medal (Beirut) in 1998, the RA "Movses Khorenatsi" medal in 2001, the title of Honorary Citizen of Yerevan in 2006, and the commemorative medal of the RA Prime Minister in 2011. He died in Yerevan.