Antranig Dzarugian

Who is Antranig Dzarugian?

Antranig Dzarugian or Andranik Tsarukyan was an influential diasporan Armenian writer, poet, educator and journalist in the 20th century.

Dzarugian was born in Gürün, Ottoman Empire in 1913. His father "Chelo Toros" was one of the fighters of the Armenian irregular units against the Ottoman Empire. During the years of the Armenian Genocide, Dzarugian separated from his mother as a result of the death marches in the Syrian desert and spent his childhood in the Armenian Orphanage of Aleppo. In 1921, he met his mother in Aleppo and moved to the local Haygazian Armenian School to receive his elementary education. In the same year, his father was arrested and killed in the Marash prison for his participation in the patriotic movement against the Ottoman Empire.

After completing his elementary education in Aleppo, Dzarugian moved to Beirut to complete his education at the newly opened Armenian College. Among his teachers in the college were prominent Armenian educators such as Nikol Aghbalian and Levon Shant. After his graduation, Dzarugian started his career as a teacher in the Armenian schools of Aleppo and Beirut. Since 1950, he began to publish the Nayiri literary weekly paper in Beirut.