INSIDE THE BOOK TOWER

The commemorative plate for Daniel Varujean in the hall of the Booktower.
Why is it there? 
  

Daniel Varoujean (1884-1915) aka Daniel Tcheboukkiarian, was born in Western Armenia, in the village of Prknig, near Sebaste. During the Turkish massacre of 1896 his father was taken prisoner and his family moved to Istanbul. His teachers sent him to the Mkhitarian brothers in Venice. Varoujean was a brilliant student and the brothers sent him on to the Ghent University, where he graduated in 1908 in sociology and literature. In 1909 he returned to his native village as a schoolmaster, to become headmaster of an Armenian school in Istabul in 1912. In 1914 he founded, along with some other Armenian poets, a literary circle publishing a magazine called "Mehian" ("temple").

Daniel Varoujean established himself as the most powerful voice in Armenian since the 11th Century mystic poet Krikor Narekatsi (Gregory of Narek) and he will remain a symbol of the period. His literary style is passionate and refined.     Varoujean was brutally murdered in 1915, at the age of 31, as a victim of Turkish genocide, a martyr of the Armenian people and his pre-Christian, Pagan Armenian religion.