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AGAYAN
(by R. Sargisian)
Agayan roots are from people of village Khachen (formerly Seydishen), located on North-West of Askeran District of NKR. Being related with multiple family ties, all real Seydishens in this or in another way are descendants of the village founder - Seydi-bek (died approx. 1430), who was related to one of the side branches of princely house of Hasan-Jalalian (the fact stated by Ghazaros Aghayan, though the detailed genealogical chain from Seydi-Bek to contemporary Aghayans has not been determined yet).
A founder of Bolnis-Khachen branch of the family, Verdi (or Allakhverdi) Aghayan (approx. 1770-1845) was the only known Aghayan, living in Seydishen. Young Verdi together with six other families left the homeland and moved to Georgia in 1788-89, where became one of the founders of village Bolnis-Khachen (1789).
At the time of writing this article (August 2006) a branch of Stepan Aghayan (1800/01-1882) has been well researched. The eldest of his four sons was Ghazaros Aghayan (1840-1911), a famous poet, a writer and an educator of last third of 19th and beginning of 20th centuries. Ghazaros Aghayan was a founder of a modern Armenian school of pedagogics as a science and Armenian children's literature as a separate professional genre; also he was a known public liberal bourgeois figure.
A daughter of Ghazaros Aghayan - Lusik (1893-1974) became a wife of the greatest artists of 20th century Martiros Saryan (1880-1972), and his son Mushegh (1883-1966) became a famous composer, singer and musicologist.
Among his multiple other descendants we can name:
- the composers Lazar Saryan (1920-1998),
- Edward Haghagortian (1930-1983),
- Narine Haghagortian (1956-2000),
- an opera singer Arkady Martirosian (born 1958),
- a film-director and scriptwriter Anatoly Eyramjian (born 1937),
- a radio (news and tech) journalist Levon Aghayan (1922-1985),
- a literary critic (Italologist and Armenologist) Sargis Saryan (1917-1962),
- a prior of Armenian communities in cities Kirov (till 2005) and Riga (after 2005) Fr. Khosrov (civil name Khoren Stepanian),
- a director of Museum of Martiros Saryan in Yerevan (since 2004) Ruzanna Saryan (born 1959),
- an artist Anna Saryan (born 1969)
and others.
The descendants of Harutyun Aghayan (1846/47-1930), a native brother of Ghazaros Aghayan, become famous by few names:
- Aram Ghukasian (1901-1972), a gastroenterologist, cardiologist, a historian of medicine), a professor and a Honored worker of science of Russia (since 1963), a corresponding member of Academy of Medical Sciences of ex-USSR (since 1965),
- Tigran Aghayan (1875-1953), a rural poet, whose poems have to be found and published,
- Temuri Aghayan (born 1969), a former member of regional parliament in Podolsk District of Moscow,
- Vaghinak Galstyan (born 1973), 2001 world champion by Greek-Roman fight.
Another brother of Ghazaros Aghayan, Sargis (1850/51-1935), became an ancestor of honored teacher of Armenia Hayk Aghayan (born 1915), and the last of classic’s brothers, my [R. Sargisian] great-grandfather Grigor (1857-1942) became an ancestor of many famous people:
- an artist on ceramics Isabel Aghayan (born 1922),
- an artist (placards) Johnrid Aghayan (1924-2004),
- an artist Suren Aghayan (born 1950),
- a known businessman, who led the (re) construction of multiple industrial objects in Moscow (including TV tower Ostankino), Martik Aghayan (1927-1988),
- a PhD in artificial intellect and fuzzy math in geophysics Sergey Aghayan (born 1955).
A branch of another son of Verdi Aghayan, Sargis (1805-1885), has been researched much less and among the descendants of his only daughter (name to be clarified) one can find a composer Harutyun (Tunic) Hovhanissian (1908-1941) and former ambassador of Armenia in Italy Gagik Bagdasarian (born 1955). There is no information at all about descendants of four daughters of Verdi. As for present state of the family, there are only few left among living in Bolnis-Khachen village. The majority descendants of Verdi Aghayan resides in Barnaul (Russia), Riga (Latvia), Phoenix (USA), etc.
Last updated in August 2006
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