Ohan Demirgian

Ohan Demirgian, also called Habib Bey (14 January 1837 – 1877), was an Egyptian diplomat. He was the favorite of king Charles XV of Sweden.

Demirgian was an Armenian and the son of the Egyptian foreign minister Stephan Bey. He was a student of the Mission égyptienne in Paris before he was employed as a secretary in the foreign ministry of the Egyptian vice-roy khediven Isma'il Pasha. Demirgian lived in France from 1844 to 1853 and studied at the Collège Stanislas de Paris and in Versailles. Thereafter, he moved to England where he lived for two years. After furthering his education in England, he returned to Egypt in 1855 where he married Arouse Araigian in 1859.

He met Prince August, Duke of Dalarna in Egypt in 1860. In 1866, he was placed in Sweden as the envoy of the Egyptian khedive. Demirgian were described as an adventurer, and his presence at court was regarded a scandal. He became a favorite of Charles XV, who awarded him Swedish citizenship in 1867, named him his secondary royal stable master at Ulriksdal Palace at 1868, and bestowed him several royal orders including the Order of Vasa.

Demirgian was disliked at the Swedish royal court, where he was referred to as The Demiurg. He resided in a house next to the Ulriksdal Palace, were he reportedly lived in "Oriental luxury" and arranged parties with women dancing with veils, who were allegedly then trafficked for prostitution to Tsarist Russia. He was a member of the club Enkan Bloms Bekanta (The Acquaintances of the Widow Blom), the club of the monarch's private circle, including among others Svante Hedin and Daniel Hwasser. According to a contemporary description, he was: "Insinuative, good-looking, small and dark, with burning eyes, extremely accommodating and polite to the ladies and keeps himself in the first line always".

In 1869, he unofficially represented Charles XV at the inauguration ceremony of the Suez Canal in Egypt. At this occasion he awarded several Swedish royal orders to important people in Egypt, such as the Order of the Sword to the mother of the khedive. He had the wish to achieve an alliance between Sweden and Egypt.

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