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TEKEYAN Vahan  was born on January 21, 1878,  in Constantinople. An Armenian poet and publicist. He studied at Nersesian, Perperian, Kedronakan Gymnasiums of Constantinople. Tekeyan worked at one of the Insurance companies in Constantinople, then he traveled to England, France, Germany, and Egypt as a commercial officer. In 1905 he founded the journal “Shirak” with S. Kyurtchian in Alexandria (in 1909 it was published as a weekly), he was the editor of the periodicals “Arev”, “Zhoghovurdi Dzayn”, etc. After the First World War he participated in gathering orphans, taught at the national Gymnasiums of Constantinople, Cyprus and other Armenian Communities. Tekeyan is considered to be the last poet of the Western Armenian classical poetry and one of the great poets of the Armenian Diaspora. 

Tekeyan’s first work “Kaghand in Caesarea” was published in 1894, in “Hayrenq” newspaper of Constantinople, the first collection of poems “Hoger” in 1901 in Paris. In the collection “Wonderful Resurrection”, (1914) and in the series “In Ararat Plain” and “Native Talks” he depicted the heroic past of the Armenian people. Tekeyan depicted the horrors of the Armenian Genocide in the collection “From Midnight to Dawn”. The feelings, emotions and aspirations of the individual are depicted in the collection of poems “Love” (1933). Tekeyan wrote poems about Armenia (“To Present Armenia”) and was encouraged by its progress. He also published the collections “Hayergutyun” (1943), “Tagharan” (1945). 

Tekeyan’s poetry is singled out by the subtle formation. He is the great master of sonnets in the Armenian Literature. Tekeyan wrote the novel “If the Lord Wills”, short stories and chronicles, publicistic and literary articles. He translated the sonnets of W. Shakespeare, Ch. Baudelaire, P. Verlaine. 

V. Tekeyan died on April 4, 1945 in Cairo. 

The schools in Yerevan and Gyumri are named after him. Tekeyan Cultural Union was founded in Beirut and also in Armenia in 1990. 

Source - "Who is Who. The Armenians" Encyclopedia, Volume I, chief-editor Hovh. Ayvazyan, Yerevan, 2007.