‘Abril’ all year at this Glendale bookstore

Ryan Carter

Harout Yeretzian sees his business of selling Armenian-related books

at his Abril Bookstore as a way to educate people about the Armenian

culture.

Making money was not his ultimate goal. But for 25 years -- the

past five in Glendale -- Yeretzian has managed to operate his store,

selling everything from Bibles to books about the Armenian Genocide

to Pinocchio, all in Armenian. Every book, whatever the writer’s

nationality, has an Armenian hook of some sort, he said.

“The main purpose is to have a place where Armenians can buy books

about their culture and where non-Armenians can come and see what

Armenian culture is all about,” he said.

Yeretzian, a native of Lebanon whose family is Armenian, and his

brother started a publishing business in 1976 in Hollywood. They

started a magazine called Abril, which means “to live” in Armenian.

It also means the month of April, which according to Yeretzian, holds

many holidays and memorials for Armenians. They later opened a print

shop and found a niche selling Armenian books in an area that had a

growing population of Armenian Americans. On his Web site, Yeretzian

touts the early store as the first source of Armenian literature in

Los Angeles.

“We saw that there was a need for Armenian books,” he said. “There

were no other bookstores of the kind in those days.”

Ultimately, he went from an average stock of 200 Armenian books to

the 2,000 in his store now.

Yeretzian said his main revenue comes from his commercial printing

and publishing company, Abril Printing, which has published books in

Armenian and English since the late 1970s.

“The bookstore is more of a luxury,” he said. “I think the service

I’m doing here is good for the Armenian community.”