Smbat Byurat

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Smbat Byurat (Der-Ghazarian, 1862, Zeitun - 1915, Ankara) was an Armenian intellectual, writer and public activist.

Byurat attended and graduated from the Jarankavorats school in Jerusalem. In 1880 he began studying at Sorbonne University. In 1885 he became the common revisor of the 36 Armenian schools of Cilicia. During this period he published his first poems in Yeghia Demirjibashian's philosophical journal "Yergrakount" (Earth).

Being a political activist, he was arrested along with his wife (who became blind in Turkish prison) and spent 5 years in prison, in Marash and Aleppo.

In 1895 he was released and moved to Cairo, where he founded the Armenian Central College and Nor Or newspaper. After the Young Turk Revolution, he returned to Turkey, where he edited the Pyunik and Gaghapar newspapers and collaborated with Ottoman Turkish newspapers. He also wrote a large number of works (from "Yeldiz to Sassoun", 1910; "The Eagle of Avarair", 1909; "For the Freedom", 1911; etc.) and opened a publishing house. He was elected as a national deputy.

Byurat was arrested on April 24, 1915, along with other Armenian intellectuals, imprisoned in Ayaş, and finally killed in Ankara.