Biography of Zabel Yesayan
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Zabel Yesayan’s BiographyFebruary 1878 – 1945?Zabel Yesayan was an Armenian writer and political figure from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century. Her books, article and speeches included topics including the Adana massacre, Armenian genocide and women’s rights. When the Ottoman Turks detained 250 of the most influential leaders in in Western Armenia on April 24, 1915, Yesayan was the only woman slotted to be arrested. She escaped to Bulgaria and eventually made it to France where she lived until the early 1930’s with her husband and children. In 1932, Yesayan and her family moved from Paris to Armenia. The Soviet Union controlled Armenia. As a supporter herself, Yesayan was happy to live under the control of the Communist Party. By 1936, Joseph Stalin, the General Secretary of the Communist Party, began what is known today as the Great Purge. In 1937 order No. 00447 called for the imprisonment and mass execution of “socially harmful elements” that were “enemies of the people.” Despite being a supporter of the Communist Party, Yesayan was arrested and accused of being an enemy of the people. She was first sentenced to death and she was able to convince the court to lift the death penalty. Instead, she was sentenced to ten years in prison. The last letter her children received from her was in 1945. To this day, no one can find documentation of when and how she died. Eleven years after that last correspondence her children, her son was able to have her case retried and in 1957 she was pardoned.
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