YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 2, NOYAN TAPAN. The ceremony of opening an auditorium after famous journalist, writer-publicist Artashes Kalantarian took place on November 2 at the Journalism Department of the Yerevan State University. As YSU Rector Aram Simonian mentioned, this auditorium will be a subject of care of both Journalism Department and all students and lecturers of the University. The auditorium, opened on the initiative of Alexander Kalantarian, A.Kalantarian's son, will soon be equiped with computers, and on his initiative, scholarship after A.Kalantarian will be fixed at the department from the next year. "A.Kalantarian is the first graduate of the YSU Journalist Department, and his name is inseparably connected with the Armenian journalism history of the 2nd half of the 20th century," department Dean Garnik Ananian mentioned. In his words, A.Kalantarian was a man of inexhaustible humour and gifted with satirical gift: it is not accidental that he started his journalism activity with feuilletons. "Everbody waited for Kalantarian's feuilletons, novels and stories impatiently, and it seemed an atom exploded after publication of his "Marathon" book, and some of Soviet high-ranking officials left their posts after publication of the book," G.Ananian said. In words of Astghik Gevorgian, the Chairwoman of the Journalists' Union of Armenia, "A.Kalantarian's name will be written in history of Armenian press with gold letters." "His eye was very sharp and he saw everything there was around him. A.Kalantarian's every feuilleton used to become a material for discussion for the Central Committee bureau. And as a result of that discussion, the official often left its chair," A.Gevorgian mentioned. It's a pity, today the JUA Chairperson's status changed: publications of the Armenian press remain unanswered, no one respond them.

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