Donabed Lulejian (2 January 1875,

Harput Harpoot () or Kharberd () is an ancient town located in the Elazığ Province of Turkey. It now forms a small district of the city of Elazığ. p. 1. In the late Ottoman period, it fell under the Mamuret-ul-Aziz Vilayet (also known as the Harpu ...

– 1917

Erzurum Erzurum (; ) is a List of cities in Turkey, city in eastern Anatolia, Turkey. It is the largest city and capital of Erzurum Province and is 1,900 meters (6,233 feet) above sea level. Erzurum had a population of 367,250 in 2010. It is the site of an ...

) was an

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian diaspora, Armenian communities around the ...

editor and teacher in the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

Biography

He was a teacher at the Armenian

Euphrates College Euphrates College (Turkish language, Turkish: ''Fırat Koleji'', Armenian language, Armenian: ''Եփրատ Գոլէճ'') was a coeducational high school in the region of Harpoot, Harput (the town of Harput is now part of the city of Elazığ, in ea ...

in Harput, where he taught chemistry. As following the

Young Turk Revolution The Young Turk Revolution (July 1908; ) was a constitutionalist revolution in the Ottoman Empire. Revolutionaries belonging to the Internal Committee of Union and Progress, an organization of the Young Turks movement, forced Sultan Abdul Hamid II ...

in 1908 the Ottoman Constitution was reinstated, the life for the Armenians improved significantly which was also the case for the education in

Armenian language Armenian (endonym: , , ) is an Indo-European languages, Indo-European language and the sole member of the independent branch of the Armenian language family. It is the native language of the Armenians, Armenian people and the official language of ...

. Between 1909 and 1910 he wrote for the college's newspaper Yeprad (Euphrates in Armenian).Tachijan, Vahé (2015-09-28). Kieser, Hans-Lukas (ed.), p.215 He wrote about the difficulties but also the necessity of a support for an understanding between the Armenians and Turkish nations. From 1910 onwards he studied at the Universities in

Yale Yale University is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and one of the nine colonial colleges ch ...

and

Cornell Cornell University is a private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson White in 1865. Since ...

in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. As he returned to the Euphrates College in 1912, he was one of the Armenian intellectuals which emphasized the importance of the maintenance of Armenian-Turkish bonds. During the 1500th anniversary of the

Armenian alphabet The Armenian alphabet (, or , ) or, more broadly, the Armenian script, is an alphabetic writing system developed for Armenian and occasionally used to write other languages. It is one of the three historical alphabets of the South Caucasu ...

in October 1913, which was celebrated widely in the schools around Harput but specially in the Euphrates College, he held a speech focused on a resurgence of an Armenian intellectual progress. In 1915 he was detained and tortured together with his brother and also a fellow teacher at the Euphrates College Hovhannes Bujicanian.Tachijan, Vahé (2015-09-28). Kieser, Hans-Lukas (ed.), p.232 Lulejian escaped captivity and established himself in the mountains in the Dersim regionTachijan, Vahé (2015-09-28). Kieser, Hans-Lukas (ed.), p.219 where he wrote his memoirs. He couldn't publish them during his lifetime as in 1917 he died from

typhus Typhus, also known as typhus fever, is a group of infectious diseases that include epidemic typhus, scrub typhus, and murine typhus. Common symptoms include fever, headache, and a rash. Typically these begin one to two weeks after exposu ...

in Erzurum, which at the times was governed by the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

Personal life

He was married and was the father of four children. Two sons survived the

Armenian genocide The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenians, Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was implemented primarily t ...

and established themselves in the United States.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lulejian, Donabed Armenians from the Ottoman Empire 20th-century Armenian writers 1875 births 1917 deaths People from Elazığ Province Deaths from typhus Educators from the Ottoman Empire 20th-century writers from the Ottoman Empire