Mkrtich Armen (real name Mkrtich Harutyunyan) was born in Alexandropol (present-day Gyumri). He graduated from the Screenwriting Department of the All-Union State Institute of Cinematography in Moscow.

In 1937, he was arrested as a so-called “enemy of the people” and spent eight years in exile. Rehabilitated in 1945, he resumed his literary career. Armen is the author of several novels, novellas, short stories, plays, and poems. His novella The Spring of Heghnar (1935) brought him wide acclaim and was adapted for the screen in 1971 by the Armenfilm studio.

He was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labour and, in 1967, was granted the title of Honored Cultural Worker of the Armenian SSR. He passed away in Yerevan.