Hayrik Mouradian, Emmanuel Hovhannisyan Ari Im Sokhak, hayrikmouradian, duduk, dudukman, lullaby

Vocal Hayrik Mouradian Hayrik Mouradian was born in 1905 in the region of Shatakh, near Lake Van. From childhood, I listened to and loved the songs of our ancestors, he said. My mother, Zozan, was a fine singer, as was my aunt Sinam. I learned folk and epic songs, and from another relative, patriotic songs. But, that world came to a tragic end, and Hayrik, his family, and the Armenians of Shatakh and all of Western Armenia were expelled from their homeland, their hearths, and the place of their old ways. Hayrik was ten years old when they left Shatakh. They reached Salmast, in Iran, and then the deserts of Iraq. Of fiftyfour family members, only four survived, including Hayrik, his brother, mother, and an uncle. In 1921, they moved to the Artashat region of Armenia. Hayrik spent his adult life working as a historian and singing the songs he learned as a youth in his beloved Shatakh. The Hayrik Mouradian Traditional Song and Dance Children s Ensemble was founded in 1996 by his stu