Zouvart Seloian Alexanian
(1909 - 2006)
An Armenian-American survivor of the Armenian Genocide, Zauvart Seloian was born in 1909 in Diyarbakir, a city now in the southeastern part of Turkey but then part of the Ottoman Empire. Diyarbakir had already seen a massacre of some 25,000 Armenians in 1895 and as a young child Zauvart was caught up in the much deadlier genocide of 1915. The genocide grew to include hundreds of thousands of Armenian men murdered or forced into labor camps, widespread rape and murder of women, and mass deportations carried out under brutal and inhuman conditions. Fortunately, Mrs. Alexanian survived the “Great Crime” that claimed the lives of more than a million Armenians and displaced many more.
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At some point afterward, she moved to Aleppo, in the Syrian Arab Republic, and married Misak Alexanian (1896-1985). Misak had immigrated to the United States in 1921 and resided in Providence, Rhode Island. The couple boarded the S.S. Sinaia in Beirut in 1931, bound for Providence.
The Alexanians owned and operated the Gaspee Lunch restaurant in Providence, at Cranston and Dodge Streets, for many years. Mrs. Alexanian was an active member of Saints Sahag and Mesrob Aremenian Apostolic Church in Providence, a former member of its Ladies Guild, and a member of the Armenian General Benevolent Union.
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Mrs. Alexanian died on August 23, 2006, at the age of 97, and was buried at the North Burial Ground, which also contains the Armenian Martyr’s Memorial dedicated to the memory of those who did not survive.
Erik Christiansen, PhD, Rhode Island College
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Zouvart Seloian Alexanian (1909-2006)
An Armenian-American survivor of the Armenian Genocide, Zauvart Seloian Alexanian was born in 1909 in Diyarbakir, a city now in the southeastern part of Turkey but then part of the Ottoman Empire. Diyarbakir had already seen a massacre of some 25,000 Armenians in 1895 and as a young child Zauvart was caught up in the violence surrounding the end of the Ottoman Empire that led to the much deadlier genocide of 1915. Beginning with the arrest of Armenian intellectuals in Istanbul in April 1915, the genocide grew to include hundreds of thousands of Armenian men murdered or forced into labor camps, widespread rape and murder of women, and mass deportations carried out under brutal and inhuman conditions. Fortunately, Mrs. Alexanian survived the “Great Crime” that claimed the lives of more than a million Armenians and displaced many more.
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At some point afterward, she moved to Aleppo, in the Syrian Arab Republic, and married Misak Alexanian (1896-1985), who was born in “Armenia, Turkey” according to his 1928 naturalization records. Misak had immigrated to the United States in 1921 and resided in Providence, Rhode Island. Alexanian was traveling on a US passport (issued only in January 1931) when the couple boarded the S.S. Sinaia in Beirut in September 1931, bound for Providence.
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The Alexanians owned and operated the Gaspee Lunch restaurant in Providence, near the intersection of Cranston and Dodge Streets, for many years. Mrs. Alexanian was an active member of Saints Sahag and Mesrob Aremenian Apostolic Church in Providence, a former member of its Ladies Guild, and a member of the Armenian General Benevolent Union.
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At the age of 93 Mrs. Alexanian relocated to Flushing Hospital in Flushing, New York. She died there on Wednesday, August 23, 2006, at the age of 97. She was returned to Providence for her burial at the North Burial Ground, which also contains the Armenian Martyr’s Memorial dedicated to the memory of those who did not survive the genocide.
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Erik Christiansen, PhD
Further Reading:
Akçam, Taner. From Empire to Republic: Turkish Nationalism and the Armenian Genocide. New York: Zed Books, 2004.
Balakian, Peter. The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America’s Response. New York: Perennial, 2003.
Karentz, Varoujan. Mitchnapert (The Citadel): A History of Armenians in Rhode Island. Lincoln, Nebraska: iUniverse, Inc., 2004.
