Acharian was born in Istanbul ( Constantinople ) on 8 March 1876 to Armenian parents . Acharian was blinded in one eye at an early age . His father , Hakob , was a shoemaker . He received initial education at the Aramian and Sahagian Schools in Samatya , then at the Getronagan ( 1889-93 ) , where he learned French , Turkish , and Persian . Upon graduation , he began teaching in Kadıköy , Constantinople , but in 1894 he moved to teach at the Sanasarian College in Erzurum . In 1895 he was accepted to the University of Paris ( Sorbonne ) , where he studied under , among others , Antoine Meillet . In 1897 he became a member of '' Société de Linguistique de Paris '' ( Linguistic Society of Paris ) , where he presented a study on the Laz language . He then met Heinrich Hübschmann and transferred to the University of Strasbourg in 1898 . Acharian moved to Russian ( Eastern ) Armenia and began a teaching career in at the Gevorgian Seminary in Ejmiatsin ( 1898-1902 ) . He thereafter moved to Shushi ( 1902-04 ) , Nor Bayazet ( 1906-07 ) , Nor Nakhichevan ( 1907-19 ) , and then to Iran : Tehran ( 1919-20 ) and Tabriz ( 1920-1923 ) . He taught Armenian , French , Turkish , Armenian history literature , and accounting . Apart from teaching , he studied Armenian dialects wherever he resided . Acharian moved to Soviet Armenia in 1923 . He was one of the most prominent Armenian scholars who moved to Soviet Armenia from the diaspora . He was arrested on 29 September 1937 , at the height of the Stalinist purges , on espionage charges . He was accused in being a spy for numerous foreign countries ( Britain , Turkey ) and being a member of a counter-revolutionary group of professors . He was released on 19 December 1939 due to lack of evidence
Stalinist purges
Great Purge
Hrachia Acharian