Background
She was born in Petrograd, Russian Empire. Mélikoff"s ancestors had been major industrialists in Baku, but she was born in the Russian capital.
She was born in Petrograd, Russian Empire. Mélikoff"s ancestors had been major industrialists in Baku, but she was born in the Russian capital.
University of Paris.
The family fled revolutionary Russia soon after the Communist takeover within weeks of her birth, arriving in France in 1919, when she was just two. There she graduated in Oriental languages from Sorbonne University in Paris. She gained her doctorate there in 1957.
She long headed the Turkic and Iranian Studies Institute at Strasbourg University and was one of the co-founders of Turcica magazine as well as chairwoman of the Turkic Development Group.
She was an honorary doctor at Baku State University. She died from a serious illness in January 2009 in Strasbourg.