Johannes Avetaranian, born Mehmet Şükri (Erzurum, Ottoman Empire, 30 June 1861 – Wiesbaden, Germany, 11 December 1919) was originally a mullah in Turkey who converted from Islam to Christianity, and later became a missionary for the Swedish Mission Covenant Church in Southern Xinjiang (1892–1938).

[2] According to his autobiography, he would have been allowed to wear the green turban reserved for sayyids by a mullah after his aunt showed him their family genealogy.

[2] He took the Armenian name of Johannes (John) Avetaranian (Avetaran means 'Gospel') and was baptised either in Tiflis, Russia (modern-day Tbilisi, Georgia) or in Tabriz, Iran, on 28 February 1885.

[2] He also translated in Uyghur some books of the Old Testament, such as Job, Genesis, the Psalms and in Turkish The Pilgrim's Progress of John Bunyan.

Instead he worked with the German Orient Mission (DOM) in Bulgaria, where he started a Christian newspaper, Gunesh, in Turkish.