Zabel Essayan (b. Scutari, Turkey, 1878 – d. 1943, Siberia, Russia). Née Zabel Hovhannessian, is an Armenian novelist who traveled around Europe to defend the cause of her people. From Istanbul she moved to Paris to study, then back to Turkey again and then ‘Soviet Armenia’, before dying in exile in Siberia. She is considered by the Armenian diaspora as one of the first educated women of her generation and known for commitment to benefit the most underprivileged and for the nobility of her writing. She remains famous as a writer and intellectual for her masterpiece: ‘In the Ruins’ written during the Adana massacres in 1909 and published in 1911.
