Birth of Garnik Ananian (June 22, 1934)

Garnik Ananian was a prolific literary critic and commentator in Armenia.

He was born in Ijevan. He studied at the Faculty of Philology of Yerevan State University (1953-1958), and after a period of working in journalism and administration in Ijevan, he returned to the university as a graduate student (1961-1964). He defended his thesis of candidate in philological sciences (Ph.D.) in 1965 on the literary works and literary scholarship published in the journal Mourj of Tbilisi in the 1890s. In the same year, he became a professor of history of Armenian literature at the Faculty of Philology.

Ananian continued his career at the university where he became director of YSU publishing house (1977-1985), dean of the Faculty of Philology (1985-1996), and head of the journalism chair (1987-2000). In 1982, he defended his doctorate thesis on the life and work of Yeghishe Charents. In 2000, he was the founding dean of the Faculty of Journalism, which he directed until his death. He became a member of the Writers Union of Armenia in 1975 and board member of the Journalists Union of Armenia in 1985. He was elected as a corresponding member of the National Academy of Sciences in 2006.

He was the author of 26 monographs and collections of articles. Among them, he published three books on Yeghishe Charents (1979, 1980, 1987), two on Nikol Aghbalian (1989, 2002), four collections of literary articles (1974, 1981, 1995, 2005), and other works.

Ananian passed away on November 20, 2007, in Yerevan.