Armenag Haigazian

[citation needed] After completing his high school education in his native Hadjin in 1885, he moved to Antab and attended the Central Turkey College.

[citation needed] He then entered the Marash Theological Seminary, where he graduated in 1892 and was licensed as a preacher of the Armenian Evangelical Church.

He received the Ph.D. degree from the Graduate School of Yale University in 1898 at the age of 28 after a two-year study in Semitic Languages and Biblical Literature.

That same year he returned to Turkey and joined the faculty of the Apostolic Institute in Konia – also known as Jenanyan College (founded in 1892) as academic Dean.

In 1907, the Board of Trustees obtained incorporation for the Apostolic Institute under the laws of the State of New York, for educational and missionary work in the Levant.

Men eminent in political life and in the legal profession, experts in reform work, ecclesiastics high in their respective churches, authors and educators contributed their share to the notable success of the meetings.

On May 9 of that year, Dr. Haigazian and his family were exiled from Konia and survived the atrocities committed by the Ottoman Empire, returning after several weeks.

On February 18, 1920, before the Kemalist government came into power in Turkey, Dr. Haigazian sent his wife and three daughters, Nelly, Pansy and Arminé to Constantinople.

[citation needed] Years later, with a donation of 25,000 USD by his daughter Mary and son-in-law Avak (Steven) Mehagian and with the help of Stephen Philibosian, Haigazian College was founded on October 17, 1955, by the Union of the Armenian Evangelical Churches in the Near East (UAECNE) and the Armenian Missionary Association of America (AMAA) as an American-style liberal arts college to assist in the preparation of teachers and pastors.