Vahan Tekeyan

Vahan Tekeyan studied at Berberian School and Getronagan Armenian High School. Nigoghos Sarafian is recorded as having studied under Vahan Tekeyan. The recorded working language is Armenian. Residence is recorded at Europe and Egypt. Employment is recorded with Shirak, Zartonk and Arev. Positions recorded include editor-in-chief.

• Name — Vahan Tekeyan Վահան Թէքէեան • Born — 21 January 1878. • Birthplace — Constantinople, Ottoman Empire • Died — 4 April 1945 • Place of death — Cairo, Egypt • Occupation — poet and public activist • Notable Works — "The Armenian Cathedral", "A Prayer Before the Future", "Your Memory Tonight", "When the Day Finally Comes", and "Your Name"

Born in the Ortaköy district of Constantinople, Tekeyan attended primary education in that neighborhood. He attended the Nersisyan School, the Berberian School, and Getronagan Armenian High School.

Beginning in 1896, he worked as trading official, a job that involved a good deal of travel in Europe. He worked for a time as a newspaper editor in Beirut and, later, in Cairo. He also worked as a teacher and became involved in political and social activism. In addition, he began to write and publish poetry. His first collection of poems, The Wonders, was published in Paris in 1901. From his base in Cairo, he wrote frequently for Armenian periodicals in the West, and in 1905 he founded the periodical Shirak, which published the work of many writers in the Armenian diaspora. • Illustration — Vahan Tekeyan, Jerusalem 1944 (his glass eye visible) After the collapse of the dictatorial regime of Abdul Hamid II, the sultan of the Ottoman Empire, in 1909, Tekeyan moved from Cairo to Constantinople, where he continued to publish Shirak and became an established public figure in Constantinople. When the First World War began in 1914, Tekeyan happened to be in Egypt, which enabled him to escape the bloodshed. Eventually, however, he did return to Constantinople, where he edited a newspaper, Voice of the People, then served as director of the Central School. Political tumult in Constantinople ultimately drove him back to Egypt, where he edited the daily newspaper Arev until the end of his life. Tekeyan's poems include: The Armenian Church, A Prayer on the Eve of Tomorrow, Your Memory Tonight, When the Day Finally Comes, and Your Name. His later collections of poetry include The Wonderful Renaissance (1914), Midnight to the Dawn (1919), Love (1933), Hayerghutyun (1943), and Tagharan (1944). He also translated works by Shakespeare, Victor Hugo, and Oscar Wilde into Armenian. He died in 1945 in Cairo, where he is buried at the Armenian cemetery.

Vahan Tekeyan is recorded as poet, opinion journalist, public figure and writer.