Zaven I Der Yeghiayan of Constantinople


Zaven Der Yeghiayan was Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople in 1913–22. He was deported to Mosul during the Armenian Genocide.

Life

Zaven Der-Yeghiayan received his primary education in Baghdad. He continued his studies at the Armash Theological Seminary. He became bishop and then prelate for Diyarbakir and in 1913 he became patriarch of Constantinople. The Ottoman government exiled him to Baghdad in 1916. In 1926 Zaven became director plenipotentiary of the Melkonian Institute in Cyprus. In 1927 he moved back to Baghdad. He is the author of My Patriarchal Memoirs. This memoir gives readers a detailed eyewitness account of the Armenian Genocide and attempts by the Patriarch himself to stop it.