Der Nersessian was born the youngest of three children in Constantinople in 1896 . She came from a well-to-do family and her maternal uncle happened to be the Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople , Malachia Ormanian . Her parents died while she was still young : her mother Akabi , when she was nine , and her father Mihran , when she was eighteen . She graduated from Yesayan Parochial School and the English High School in Constantinople , gaining fluency in Armenian , English and French at an early age . In 1915 , during the height of the Armenian Genocide , Der Nersessian and her sister Arax ( by then orphans ) were forced to leave for Europe , where they took up residence in Geneva . Der Nersessian studied at the University of Geneva for several years until settling in Paris , France in 1919
Armenian Genocide
Armenian Genocide
Sirarpie Der Nersessian