TEHRAN: Armenia To Celebrate Iranian Poet

ARMENIA TO CELEBRATE IRANIAN POET

Press TV, Iran
May 9 2007

A conference on the poetry and views of the great Iranian epic poet
Ferdowsi is set to be held in the Armenian capital, Yerevan, May 16th.

A number of Armenian writers, literary critics and scholars will
attend the event, giving speeches on the literary aspects of the
Iranian poet’s work.

The event was planned during the recent meeting of Iran’s cultural
attache to Armenia Reza Otoufi with the director of the Institute
of Literature of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of
Armenia Azat Yeghiazaryan.

Referring to the success of a similar conference held last year in
Armenia, Otoufi said one of the main outcomes was the proximity of
Iranian and Armenian scholars’ views.

Yeghiazaryan, for his part, emphasized the proper function of Iran
in the international arena and said his country plans to bolster
cultural ties with Iran.

Iran’s cultural office in Armenia and the Armenian National Academy
of Sciences have planned the seminar.

Hakim Abol Qasim Ferdowsi, 935-1020 CE, was born in the Iranian
province of Khorasan, in a village near Tus.

His masterpiece, the Shahnameh (The Epic of the Kings), to which he
devoted more than thirty five years, is one of the most revered of
all Persian poems.

The Shahnameh recounts the tales of the old Persian kings, long before
the Muslim conquest of the region.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Emil Lazarian

“I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.” - WS