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Kevork Ajemian

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Kevork Ajemian
Գևորգ Աճեմյան
Գևորգ Աճեմյան
Born(1932-05-23)May 23, 1932
Manbij, Syria
DiedDecember 27, 1998(1998-12-27) (aged 66)
Lyon, France
OccupationNovelist, Writer, Journalist and Public activist
GenreRealist
Notable worksA Speech for the Road, Ruling Over the Ruins

Kevork Vartani Ajemian (Adjemian) (May 23, 1932, Manbij, Syria - December 27, 1998, Lyon, France) was a prominent[1] ethnic Armenian writer, journalist, novelist, theorist and public activist, and long-time publisher of the Beirut-based literary, artistic and general publication Spurk. Ajemian, alongside Hagop Hagopian (real name Harutiun Tagushian) and pastor James Karnusian was a co-founder of the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA) military organization.

Biography

Ajemian was born in Manbij, near Aleppo, Syria in a family of Armenian Genocide survivors from Sasun. He studied in Aleppo, then in 1952 he moved to Beirut.

Ajemian graduated from the American University of Beirut in 1958. He was the editor of The Daily Star in Beirut, contributed to Shirak and Graser Armenian literary magazines.

A representative of the new generation of Armenian Diasporan writers of the 1960s, he wrote both in Armenian and in English, his books were published in Lebanon, USSR and USA. Ajemian "has been acclaimed as a powerful intellectual voice in Armenian freedom movements as his works express the longing, rootlessness, and despair of diasporan peoples everywhere".[2] As a novelist he experimented with modern forms and postsurrealist techniques.[3] According to "The Book Buyer's Guide" (1969), in his first English novel Symphony in Discord, Ajemian, "a well-known Armenian author takes a look and a laugh at life in an unusually provocative study".[4] His Ruling over the Ruins novel is a love story of a bright young Irish journalist and an aging Armenian lawyer marooned together in war-ravaged Beirut.

According to Kari S. Neely, Ajemian's writings in both Armenian and English are more like philosophical tracks than fiction and his "writing style, perhaps like his lifestyle, is aggressive and direct, never mincing words". They overtly deal with themes of diaspora's identity. In his A Perpetual Path novel Ajemian points the finger "inwardly to the Armenian people, blaming them for their past calamities".[5] Even the violence is necessary to assert your rights, because noone is going to give them to you willingly.[6]

Ajemian was one of the founders of ASALA, developed the policy of organization. One of the most famous novels of Ajemian, The Descendants of Milky Way ("Hartkoghi zharankortnere"), is dedicated to the life of the Armenian youth in Lebanon of 1970's. In another novel by Ajemian, "A Time for Terror" (1997), the story concerns an attempt to assassinate the head of the Armenian Liberation Army in 1980's Beirut. In 1997 the book was discussed at New York radio.[7]

From 1975 to 1989 Kevork Ajemian edited the Spurk, and in 1979 he took part in the First Armenian Congress Organizing Committee (Paris). He died in Lyon, France.

In 1999, a collection of the best journalistic works of Ajemian was published by ASALA.

Selected bibliography

In English

  • Symphony in Discord, novel, Philadelphia, 1961, 128 p.,
  • The Fallacy of Modern Politics, politological research, Virginia, 1986, 199 p.,
  • A Time for Terror, novel, Dallas, 1997, 196 p.
  • "Ruling over the Ruins", novel, USA, 1999, 262 p..

In Armenian

  • Impossible Story, Beirut, 1956,
  • Streets of Non-secure, Yerevan, 1968, 375 p.,
  • The Only Decision, Beirut, 1972, 199 p.,
  • A Speech for the Road, 1999, 349 p.

References

  1. ^ Kevork Ajemian, Prominent Contemporary Writer and Surviving Member of Triumvirate Which Founded ASALA, Dies in Beirut, Lebanon // The Armenian Reporter, 01-02-1999
  2. ^ Ruling Over the Ruins, by Kevork Ajemian, Amazon Editorial Review
  3. ^ Encyclopedia of world literature in the 20th century, by Leonard S. Klein, Steven Serafin, Walter D. Glanze, 1993, ISBN 0-8044-3135-3. p. 121
  4. ^ The Book Buyer's Guide, 1969, p. 38
  5. ^ Diasporic Representations: A Study of Circassian and Armenian Identities in Greater Syria, by Kari S. Neely, 2008 - 312 p., p. 276
  6. ^ Diasporic Representations: A Study of Circassian and Armenian Identities in Greater Syria, by Kari S. Neely, 2008 - 312 p., p. 272
  7. ^ New York Magazine, Nov 17, 1997, Vol. 30, No. 44, p. 142

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