After graduating from school Teryan moved to Baku to study at the Baku Institute of Physical Education. He won the Soviet championships in Greco-Roman wrestling from 1950 to 1954, and since 1952 competed internationally, winning a bronze medal at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki in the bantamweight category (57 kg). He was a member of the first Soviet wrestling team to compete in a World Championships at the 1953 World Wrestling Championships in Naples. Teryan won the gold medal in his division, defeating Olympic Champion Imre Hódos in the finals. In 1953 he became the first wrestler from Azerbaijan to win a world title. Domestically he also won the Soviet bantamweight title in freestyle wrestling. In 1955 he broke his clavicle after a motorcycle accident. He retired from competitions and became a wrestling coach at his sports society Dynamo Baku. In April 1970, he was killed in a domestic dispute.