Stepan Sapah-Gulian (Stepanos Ter-Danielian, 1861, Nakhijevan - 1928, New York) was a prominent Armenian journalist, political scientist, intellectual and leader of the Armenian Social Democrat Hunchakian Party.
Stepan Sapah-Gulian was born in Djahri, a village just north of Nakhichevan on 14 February 1861. Sapah-Gulian attended the Nersesian academy in Tiflis for his primary and secondary education and was later appointed director of Nakhichevan schools. In 1887 he was arrested by Tsarist authorities, and briefly jailed.
As an Armenian activist Sapah-Gulian met with renowned Hunchak activist Matteos Sarkissian “Paramaz” in Nakhichevan and Meghri, and discussed revolutionary ideas. Sapah-Gulian, traveled throughout western Armenia (Ottoman Armenia), the Middle East, and was later briefly director of the Armenian school in Jerusalem prior to his departure to Paris for continuation of higher education and subsequently, in 1895, graduated from the École Libre des Sciences Politiques with future French Prime Minister Raymond Poincaré.
As an ardent activist for the Armenian cause Sapah-Gulian joined and worked on behalf of the Hunchakian in 1894. Sapah-Gulian became a leader within the Hunchak party and founded and edited several journals, including Yeritasard Hayastan (‘Young Armenia’, 1903), Hunchak, Veradsnound (‘Revival’) Nor Ashkharh.
After the Ottoman constitution he along with Social Democrat Hunchak Party declared opposition to the Young Turk led Committee of Union and Progress, and urged other Armenian political parties to join the Hunchaks in opposition to the Ittihad movement.
While in Cairo, Sapah-Gulian would be condemned to death (in absentia) along with other Hunchak party members in 1915 by the Ittihad government. Sapah-Gulian later traveled to the USA to recruit for the volunteer units and to obtain assistance for the Armenians in the war. In the States he edited Yeritasard Hayastan in New York and fundamentally disagreed on dissolution of the Social Democrat Hunchak Party in favor of the Russian Social Democrats, showing determination to maintain independence and integrity of the Armenian Social Democrat Hunchak party.
Stepan Sapah-Gulian died in New Jersey on the 28th of April, 1928.