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 SEVAK (Ghazaryan) Paruyr was born on January 26, 1924 in Chanakhchi village (now Zangakatun in Ararat region of RA). An Armenian poet, cultural figure, literary critic. Doctor in philological sciences (1970). He graduated from Yerevan State University in 1945 and Maxim Gorky Literature Institute of Moscow in 1955. From 1963-71 Sevak was a senior researcher at the Institute of Literature of Armenian SSR and at the same time he worked as secretary in the Board of Writers’ Union of Armenia. In 1948 Sevak published his first collection of poems “Immortals Command ”, then the poem “Uncompromising Intimacy” (1953) and collection of poems “Love Road” and “Again with you” (1957) were published. Qualitatively new poems were love poems “My late love”, “Retreat with a Song”, “Song of Songs” and the lyrical and philosophical poem “The Unsilenceable Belfry” (1959, revised ed., 1966, Armenian SSR State Prize, 1967). 

By depicting the fate of Komitas in the poem “The Unsilenceable Belfry”, Sevak touched upon the tragedy of the Armenian people during the genocide. Sevak’s poems “A Man called Mashtots” and “Liturgy in Three Voices” are singled out by patriotic spirit and philosophical conclusions. Sevak solved some innovative problems in his works by combining traditional Armenian poetic structure with European and American ones. The first and most significant manifestation of this combination is the  collection “Man in a Palm” (1963), which is characterized by the desire to uncover the secrets of the inner world of the contemporary man, and the use of “free verse” and poetic flexible forms. 

By the Collection of poems, "Let there be light" (1971), Sevak interpreted man with his complex and contradictory nature. Literary- philological and critical studies ("Sayat-Nova", 1969), and articles are the part of Sevak’s literary heritage. He was the author of the scenario of documentary films "Mesrop Mashtots" (1962, Armenfilm), "Sayat-Nova" 1965 Armenfilm) and did many translations.

In 1966-70 Sevak was the deputy of Supreme Soviet of USSR. 

Paruyr Sevak died on June 17, 1971 in a car crash and is buried in his birthplace. 

Schools, streets in different cities of RA, district in Yerevan and village in Ararat region are named after Paruyr Sevak. 

Source - "Who is Who. The Armenians" Encyclopedia, Volume I, chief-editor Hovh. Ayvazyan, Yerevan, 2007.