Kegham Kavafyan
Armenian architect
Kegham Kavafyan (Գեղամ Գաւաֆեան, born 1888 Constantinople, Ottoman Turkey – November 30, 1959 Switzerland) was an Ottoman Armenian architect. He is noted for his construction plans for the Süreyya Opera House in the Kadıköy district of Istanbul, Turkey.
Biography
Kavafyan was born in Constantinople to Armenian parents. He received his primary education at the Armenian Surp Haç Tbrevank School in Üsküdar. He continued his education at the prestigious Berberian Academy.
In 1910 he graduated from the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées, a Civil Engineering School in Paris. After returning to Istanbul, he began designing and renovating many buildings in the city. By the order of Deputy of Istanbul Süreyya İlmen, Kegham Kavafyan was appointed the architect to the Süreyya Opera House which was completed in 1927.
The opera house was known to be the first musical theatre on the Asian side of Istanbul. He also renovated the Mhitaryan Armenian School in the Pangaltı district of Istanbul in 1917.
The public source identifies “Kegham Kavafyan” as armenian architect. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Kegham, Kavafyan and Armenian.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6383451. VIAF identifies the subject as 5357159279147908160007. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1888, 1959, 1910 and 1927.
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This entry incorporates text from “Kegham Kavafyan” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.