Avetik Sahaki Isahakyan (Armenian:Ավետիք Սահակի Իսահակյան; October 30, 1875 – October 17, 1957) was anArmenian lyric poet, writer and public activist.

Avetik Isahakyan
Native name	Ավետիք Իսահակյան
Born	(1875-10-30)October 30, 1875 Alexandropol,Erivan Governorate,Russian Empire (now,Gyumri,Armenia)
Died	October 17, 1957(1957-10-17) (aged 81) Yerevan,Armenian SSR,Soviet Union
Resting place	Komitas Pantheon
Occupation	Poet,novelist
Language	Armenian
Alma mater	Gevorgian Seminary Leipzig University
Notable awards	Stalin State Prize Order of Lenin (2)
Spouse	Sophia Kocharian
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Isahakyan was born inAlexandropol (present-day Gyumri, Armenia) in 1875. He was educated at theGevorgian Seminary inEtchmiadzin, and later at theUniversity of Leipzig, where he studiedphilosophy andanthropology. He started his literary as well as political careers in his early youth. Upon his return fromLeipzig in 1895 he entered the ranks of the newly established Alexandropol committee of theArmenian Revolutionary Federation. Through his activities he supported armed groups and financial aid sent toOttoman Armenia from Alexandropol. He was arrested in 1896 and spent a year inYerevan’s prison.

Later Isahakyan went abroad, attending literature and history of philosophy classes at theUniversity of Zurich. He returned to his homeland in 1902, and then moved toTiflis (modern-day Tbilisi).

Together with 158 other Armenian intellectuals, he was arrested in 1908 and after spending half a year in Tiflis's Metekha prison (just likeHovhannes Tumanyan), he was freed on bail. Staying in theCaucasus was no longer possible, and by 1911 Isahakyan had emigrated.

Isahakyan did not believe the promises made by the government of theYoung Turks regarding self-government and autonomy of Ottoman Armenia. Assured that the danger ofPan-Turkism (which he believed was aimed at the total extinction of Armenians) could be prevented byTurkey’s supporter,Germany, Isahakyan went to Berlin. There, together with a number of German intellectuals, he participated in the German-Armenian movement, and edited the group’s journalMesrob and co-foundedGerman–Armenian Society. The start ofWorld War I and the horrifying massacres confirmed his gruesome predictions about the annihilating nature of the Young Turks government's policies. After the war and theArmenian genocide, Isahakyan described through his compositions the Armenians' sorrowful destiny and their heroic struggle for freedom. The poet put forward the genocide accusations, the worst part of which had taken place between 1915 and 1922, in "The White Book". During that period, Isahakyan expressed his ideas mainly through his social and political articles, in which he discussed the topics of the Armenian cause, reunification of Armenia and the restoration of the Armenian government. The images of the massacres are persistent in his poems, such as "Snow has Covered Everything...", "To Armenia...", and "Here Comes Spring Again".

Korney Chukovsky met him inKislovodsk in 1926 and wrote in his diary:

I've just had a visit from four Armenians, one of whom, Avetik Isaakyan, is a well-known poet. I can't tell you what a nice man he is: modest, quiet, completely unaffected. He spent a fortnight here without anyone's knowing who he was. Yet his fame is such that when I mentioned him to our Armenian barber, he immediately beamed and started reciting his poetry in Armenian. The shoeshine man had the same reaction: "Avetik! Avetik!" He has a sad, absent look about him. They say the regime (which pays him a small pension) won't let him visit his family abroad. I was surprised to find that he was unable to recite even four lines of his verse in Armenian when I asked him to: he's forgotten everything. And when we had an Armenian evening and his poems were read from the podium he just sat there in the audience, hunched forward, his hands over his face. He refused to go out on the podium or utter a single word.^[1]

Isahakyan again went abroad in 1930 and lived inParis, but returned permanently to theArmenian SSR in 1936, where he was elected to theAcademy of Sciences of the Armenian SSR in 1943 and president of theWriters Union of the Armenian SSR in 1944. He was awarded theStalin State Prize in 1946, served as a member of the Soviet Committee for Protection of Peace, and was a deputy of the II-IV Supreme Soviets of theArmenian SSR.

He was awarded theOrder of Lenin twice and decorated with other medals.

Seeing that Gyumri's famous satiristPoloz Mukuch did not have a tombstone twenty years after his death, Isahakyan ordered one, with the side of the tombstone reading "To Poloz Mukuch (Mkrtich Ghazarosi Melkonyan); and the other side: "A memento from the poet Avetik Isahakyan."^[2]

Avetik Isahakyan died inYerevan in 1957. He is buried atKomitas Pantheon, which is located in the city center of Yerevan.^[3]

Upon his release from the prison, 1897, he published first compilation of his poems "Songs and Wounds", however soon was arrested again for his activities "against Russia's Tsar" and sent toOdessa. The lyricism, emotional charge and melody of his poems earned him immediate popularity. His best works are filled with sorrow and lament meditations about the fate of the humanity, injustice of life. His compositions are penetrated with love to one's motherland and people.

Between 1899 and 1906 he wrote "The Songs of Haiduks", a compilation of poems that became the first creation within classical Armenian poetry dedicated to the Armenian freedom struggle.

A symbolic story portraying the Armenian politics and Armenian cause of the 19th early 20th centuries must have been "Usta Karo", an unfinished novel, the work on which had accompanied the writer through all his life. "Usta Karo will be done on the day when the Armenian cause is resolved", the master himself used to say. Ishakyan could not get used the idea of a dismembered Armenia. With a deep emotional pain and bitterness in his heart he continued to believe that a time would come when the Armenian people would return to their native shores.

Isahakyan returned to theSoviet Armenia in 1926 where he published a new collection of his poems and stories (e.g. "A Pipe of Patience" - 1928). Between 1930 and 1936 he lived abroad where he acted as a friend of theSoviet Union. He later had finally moved back to Armenia where he continued his enormous social work. Among his works of that time are famous "Our historians and Our Minstrels" (1939), "To my Motherland" (1940), "Armenian Literature" (1942) or "Sasna Mher" (1937).

His poems are those of love and sorrow. One of his best known works is the philosophical poem "Abu-Lala Mahari" (1909–1911), while his other well-known works include "Songs and Novels" and "The Mother's Heart". Being a romantic, Isahakyan was best known for his verse "On the Bridge of Realto" dedicated to his first love. During theSecond World War of 1941–1945, he wrote patriotic poems like "Martial Call" (1941), "My Heart is at the Mountains' Top" (1941), "To the Undying Memory of S. G. Zakyan" (1942), "The Day of the Great Victory" (1945) and many other. TheGreat Soviet Encyclopedia characterized his creative work as "filled withhumanism, and a great respect for human dignity" and "deeply connected with the history and culture of the Armenian people, embracing the best traditions ofRussian and world literature." The Russian poetAlexander Blok characterized him as a "first class poet, fresh and simple, whom one, perhaps, cannot find inEurope anymore."^[5]

Isahakyan's works have been translated in many languages and his poems have been used as lyrics for songs.

One of the busiest streets of Yerevan, stretching for 1.1 km from Nalbandyan Street toBaghramyan Avenue in Yerevan'sKentron district, is named after Isahakyan.^[6] The bronze-granite statue of Avetik Isahakyan by sculptorSargis Baghdasaryan and architect Liparit Sadoyan was opened in 1965 inYerevanCircular Park^[4] Thefirst public library of Yerevan opened on Amiryan Street in 1935 was named after Avetik Isahakyan in 1955, on his 80th birthday.

Isahakyan's portrait appears on the Armenian 10,000dram bill. It was also featured on an Armenian postage stamp in 2000 and a Soviet postage stamp in 1975.

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  Tomb of Avetik Isahakyan in Yerevan
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  Avetik Isahakyan on a 1975U.S.S.R. postage stamp.
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  Avetik Isahakyan on a 2000Armenian postage stamp.
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  Avetik Isahakyan on an Armenian 10,000-dram banknote.

• Statue of Avetik Isahakyan

• Isahakian, Avetik (1991).Notebooks of a Lyric Poet. translated, introduced, and annotated by Leon D. Megrian. Lanham, Maryland:University Press of America.ISBN 0-8191-8051-3.

• Avetik Isahakyan House-Museum
• Biography of Avetik Isahakyan on Armenianhouse.org
• Avetik Isahakyan poems
• Avetik Issahakian,Selected Works: Poetry and Prose, translated into English by Mischa Kudian (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1977)