Khnko Aper

Atabek Khnkoyan (Armenian: Աթաբեկ Հովհաննեսի Խնկոյան, October 19, 1870 - October 8, 1935), Armenian Children's writers, who wrote under the pen name Khnko Aper (Armenian: Խնկո Ապեր).

He was born in the village of Gharaboyaa in Lori region. He received his primary education in his birthplace and then in Alexandropolb. Between 1890 and 1910 he taught in various Armenian schools in Transcaucasia. He contributed to the periodicals Ashkhatavor (The Labor), Nor ashkhtavor (The new laborer), Aghbiur (The fountain), Machkal (The plowman), Hayastani ashkhatvaruhi (The Armenian worker-woman), and Hasker (Spikes), a monthly magazine for children.

Following the establishment of the Soviet regime, he settled in Armenia, where he resumed his career as a writer and educator. He wrote several textbooks to teach Armenian children their mother tongue, including Mer Dbrotse (Our school) and Karmir arev (Crimson sun)

Khnko Aper wrote mainly children's literature: fables, legends, and lyric and narrative poems. His original writings and translation make a total of 120 books. Giughatsin yev arje (The peasant and the bear, 1909), Gogh makin (The lamb thief, 1911, 1941, 1970), Pesatsu muke (Mouse, the intended bridegroom to be 1912), Arakner (Parables, 1917, 1930, 1937), Tranvaye Yerevanum (The Yerevan streetcar, 1934, 1936). Mknern inchpes grvestin katvi tem (How the mice fought the cat, 1936) Kkozn agrave (The pig and the crow, 1940), Gayln u katun (The wolf and the cat, 1957) and Mkneri zhoghove (The council of mice, 1957, 1964, 1972, 1979), are among his best known works. khnko Aper's use of dialect and popular language are part of literary charm of his prose and poetry.

He died in Yerevan and was buried in the Komitas Pantheon in Yerevan.