(pen name of Amaiak Saakovich Voskanian). Born Feb. 2(15), 1902, in the city of Karaklis, Western Armenia. Soviet Armenian writer. Honored Cultural Worker of the Armenian SSR (1967). Member of the CPSU since 1924.

In 1915, Siras moved to Tbilisi, and in 1921, to Yerevan. He began publishing in 1922. In 1932 he graduated from the Communist Institute of Journalism. Siras wrote the novels Ask Them (1931; 2nd ed., 1954, entitled On the Eve; Russian translation, 1965), about Armenia on the eve of the Great October Socialist Revolution, and Unwritten Law (1936; 2nd ed., 1940, entitled Anait; Russian translation, 1949), about the life of an Armenian family. Siras’ novella Father and Son (1946) and novel Ararat (1950; Russian translation, 1956) deal with the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45. Siras’ works have been translated into many national languages of the USSR and into foreign languages. He has been awarded three orders and several medals.