Who is Diran Balakian

Diran Balakian is Peter's paternal grandfather. Diran moved his family from Constantinople when Gerard was two years old, and the family traveled through several countries. Peter learns later that Diran moved his family to escape the genocide. Gerard describes Diran as a quiet man, with a certain distance. As a physician, he was adored by patients, but he also had an obsession with cleanliness. As a child, Diran and his brothers attended school in Russia, where they were left alone by the Turks. By 1896, Diran was in Tiflis, a cosmopolitan Armenian city. He went to medical school in Leipzig, only to return to Armenian Ani in 1905, to work with an archaeological excavation of the ruined Armenian city. By 1909, he was studying medicine, but when he heard of the massacre of Armenians at Adana, he immediately went to assist.