Ellen was born in Alexandropol (Gyumri). She received education at the Hovnanian School in Tbilisi, and later she studied law in Rostov. Ellen joined the Armenian Revolutionary Federation Dashnaktsutyun from the very young age, she was the secretary of the parliament of Armenia and held a post in the government as well. During the Armenian-Turkish war she she did not hesitate to immediately volunteer to the front, that’s why Simon Vratsian, the last prime minister of the First Republic of Armenia, called her the Armenian Joan of Arc. She was imprisoned after the establishment of the Soviet power in Armenia, but she managed to escape from prison during February rebellion and went to Persia, then to Beirut, then to Paris. In Paris, she became a prominent public figure, one of the founders of the French-Armenian Blue Cross. In her articles she wrote about the situation of Armenian women in the Soviet Armenian prisons, she also touched upon the topic of the woman in Armenian literature. Her literary heritage is quite rich: The Guard (Pahakĕ, stories, 1944), The New Woman (Nor kinĕ, 1960), Kars and Brother Asho (Karsĕ ev Akhpēr Ashō, 1962) and so on[1].
[1] See Haraj Newspaper, Paris, 1970, January 25. I would like to thank Michael A. Babayan for the material and photograph.