Hamlik – The Third Son of Hovhannes Tumanyan

In this publication, we will present some information about the third son of the great Armenian poet Hovhannes Tumanyan Amlik, who, like the eldest son of the poet Mushegh, became a victim of the Bolshevik repression.

Hamlik Tumanyan, according to the database of 1917-1991 repression victims posted online by the international organization “Memorial”, was sentenced to death by the decision of the military board (members Matulevich, Zaryanov, Zhigur, and Kostyushko) on September 13, 1937.

On the next day, on September 14, the sentence was carried out. There is no information about the place of execution of the sentence and the place of Hamlik’s burial, but it can be argued with all likelihood that this took place in the territory of Georgia.

Hamlik Tumanyan was born in 1896 in Tiflis. After graduating from the Nersisyan college in 1916, he left for the Caucasian front for service in the Armenian volunteer regiment of commander Andranik Ozanyan.

Since April 1919, he worked in the Parliament of the First Republic of Armenia, initially as the head of the protocol department and then as the head of the entire staff.

In the days of the February 1921 uprising, Hamlik returned to fulfilling his duties. But after the defeat of the uprising, he was forced to leave Yerevan together with the former leaders of the republic and went to Tabriz through Syunik. Then, he moved to Paris, where he entered the Faculty of Philosophy at Sorbonne University.

Taking advantage of the announced amnesty in Soviet Armenia, Hamlik returned to Tiflis in 1924 and began working in the press department of the Transcaucasia. He worked at a local school for some time as well. At the time of his arrest, he was working as a senior scientist at the Academy of Sciences.

It is also known that Hamlik Tumanyan was arrested for the first time in 1935 but was released. At the end of May 1937, he was again arrested by the personal order of Lavrentiy Beria.

Ruben Shukhyan