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July 18 marks the 80th birthday anniversary of famous Armenian playwright, screenwriter, publicist and translator Perch Zeytuntsyan.

Born in Alexandria, Egypt in 1938, Zeytuntsyan repatriated to Soviet Armenia in the aftermath of World War II, a period marked by intense economic hardships. He attended the Aghayan School in Yerevan and it was during this period that he published his first short story, “The Gift”.

After completing his secondary education in Yerevan, he studied at the Pyatigorsk Institute of Foreign Languages in Russia. He later also specialized in screenwriting art in Moscow.

From 1966 to 1968, Zeytuntsyan worked at the national film studio Hayfilm, being its editor and later editor-in-chief. In 1968-75, he was the editor-in-chief of the Yerevan Studio of TV films.

Zeytuntsyan served as a secretary of the Writers' Union of Armenia from 1975-1986. He went on to become the country’s first minister of culture after Armenia’s independence in 1991.

Perch Zeytuntsyan is the author of numerous works, some of which have been translated into different languages and staged in countries around the world.

In 1956, his inaugural collection of works, “His First Friend”, was published. It won him critical acclaim, after which the writer published a series of novels and novellas, including “Sounds of our Neighborhood” (1959), “After Us” (1963), “For Paris” (1965), “Claude Robert Eatherly or a Twentieth-Century Legend” (1975), “Arshak the Second”, “The Last Dawn” (1989), and “The Stolen Snow” (1995). Since their publication, many of these works have been translated into Russian, Czech, Bulgarian, Hungarian, and the Baltic languages.

Zeytuntsyan wrote his first theatrical work, “The Saddest of Sad Men”, in 1974. The work was a tragicomedy staged in Yerevan, and since then, ten of his plays have been produced and later published in Armenia. These include “The Legend of the Ruined City” (1975), “The Call of the Gods”, “Unfinished Monologue” (1981), “The Great Silence” (1984), “All Rise, the Court is in Session” (1988), and “Born and Died” (1995).

A recurrent theme in Zeytuntsyan’s works is the relationship between the individual, society, and the exercise of authority. The majority of his plays draw their subject matter from Armenian history, particularly historical episodes that are relevant to contemporary issues. One major theme in his more recent prose and theatrical works is the Armenian Genocide, reflecting the growth of nationalism in Armenia towards the end of Soviet rule. His novel "The Last Dawn", as well as his plays "The Great Silence" and "All Rise, the Court is in Session" explore these themes. These plays have often been performed in both Armenia and different areas of the Armenian Diaspora.

Perch Zeytuntsyan was a double laureate of a state award, an honored art worker and an honorary member of the Tiberina Academy of Rome.

He passed away on 21 August 2017.