He studied at Moscow State University, then in Lausanne and Sorbonne, worked as a teacher in Agulis, Shusha and Tiflis, and headed the Armenian National college in Iran.

In 1914 he returned to Russian Armenia and participated in the National Bureau, working with the survivors of Armenian genocide.

Armenian-American historian Richard G. Hovannisian describes Nikol Aghbalian in the second volume of The Republic of Armenia:[1]… Nikol Aghbalian was a gregarious intellectual and pedagogue whose restless disposition led him in many directions, including literary criticism, linguistics, and revolutionary journalism.

Enthralled with the cultural vivacity of his people, Aghbalian, who had directed schools in Egypt, Persia, and various localities in Transcaucasia, took hold of the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Culture with passionate enthusiasm.Agbalian worked at the Hammer, Horizon, Balcony, Journal Amsorya and other periodicals.

A soon as 1930 he published his credo overruling the rule of law of any country with his party's constitution and explaining his mode of action and crime in Egypt: 'If yesterday you were a simple soldier or squad leader, and today you become a government minister, you do not cease being a Dashnaktsakan who is subject to the [ARF’s] Constitution and Bylaws.