Akbar Yunis oglu Suleymanov (Akbar Yerevanli) was born on July 17, 1921 in the city of Iravan. There he graduated from high school and studied at the Eastern department of the Faculty of Philology of Iravan State University in 1943–1948.

He started his career in 1938 in the editorial office of the newspaper “Communist” (since 1939 “Soviet Armenia”) published in the Azerbaijani language in Iravan, where he worked as a literary worker, responsible secretary, and translator. In 1951, he entered the post-graduate course of the Institute of Literature named after M. Abeghyan of the Armenian Academy of Sciences, and in 1954 he defended his candidacy thesis on the topic “The idea of friendship between the Armenian and Azerbaijani peoples in literature”. In 1950–1965, he was a teacher of Azerbaijani literature at Iravan State University, and from 1956 he worked as the head of the department of Azerbaijani language and literature at the Iravan Pedagogical Institute named after X. Abovyan. He conducted consistent research in the field of mutual literary relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan and translated the works of a number of Armenian writers into Azerbaijani. His books: “The Friendship of the Armenian and Azerbaijani Peoples in Literature” (1955), “Jalil Mammadguluzade and the Armenian People” (1966), “Nasimi” (1973), “Khatabala” weekly newspaper and “Azerbaijan” (1974) were published in the Armenian language.

“Azeri-Armenian literary relations. From ancient times to the end of the 18th century ” by Akbar Yerevanli was published in the form of a 554-page monograph in 1968 in Iravan. Although his doctoral dissertation on this topic was published in “Hayastan” publishing house, he was never allowed to defend it till the end of his life.

“Armenian-Azerbaijani oral folk literature relations” (1958, 270 p.), “Sabir and Armenian people” (1962, 45 p.), “Hovanes Tumanyan and Azerbaijani literature” (1974, 131 p.) ), “Avetik Isahakyan and Azerbaijani literature” (1975, 192 p.), were published in the Azerbaijani language in Iravan.

Akbar, a native of Iravan, died in Iravan in 1981 and was buried next to his parents.

The 165-page illustrated book “Yunis Nuri” written by Akbar Iravani together with Sabir Rizayev was published in 1982 by the Armenian Theater Society in Iravan.

It should be noted that Yunis Nuri, the father of Akbar Yerevanli, was the founder of the Azerbaijan theater in Iravan, and from the age of 18 headed the theater collective for about 50 years. Aziz Suleymanov, the son of Yunis Nuri, worked as the director of the theater in 1967–1968. From 1984 until the theater was closed, Yunis Suleymanov, the son of Akbar Yerevanli, was the director of the Iravan Azerbaijan State Drama Theater.

Nazim Mustafa
Doctor of philosophy in history, recipient of the State Prize