Khachik Dashtents, whose birth name was Khachik Avetisyan, was born into a shepherd's family on May 25, 1910, in Dashtadem, a village in the historical region of
Sasun in the
Bitlis vilayet of the
Ottoman Empire. He later adopted the pen name
Dashtents, based on the name of his native village (and in imitation of the poet
Yeghishe Charents). and received refuge and education from American humanitarian organizations in
Alexandropol (modern-day Gyumri, Armenia). He briefly worked as a village teacher, then moved to
Yerevan. He graduated from
Yerevan State University in 1932 and then worked for the newspaper
Avangard. That same year, he published his first collection of poems, titled (Book of songs), with the help of Yeghishe Charents. In 1947, Dashtents published
Tigran Mets (Tigranes the Great), a historical tragedy in verse. He gained widespread recognition for the novel
Khodedan, which tells the tragic story of
Western Armenians during
World War I. It follows Armenians from Sasun as they rebuild their lives following the genocide. This work is about the
Armenian national liberation movement in the Ottoman Empire. == Notes ==