Vartan was born in Constantinople, the son of a poor Armenian tailor, and attended the city's first American Presbyterian missionary school in Bebek.

He joined the British army, serving in the Crimea as an interpreter, but after witnessing the dreadful inadequacies of battlefield medical facilities he resolved to become a surgeon.

He married Mary Anne Stewart, a Scottish nurse, and immediately after the wedding he and his bride left for Palestine.

[3] When the Free Church of Scotland mission wanted advice about starting their own missionary work, they asked him.

John Zeller, the pastor of the church, assisted Vartan with his work in founding the Nazareth Hospital.