In 1919 she was elected to parliament, becoming one of the first three female MPs in the country.

[1] She married Aram Manukyan in 1917 had a daughter named Seda the following year.

[2] Manukyan was one of the founders of the First Republic of Armenia and became its first Minister of Internal Affairs in 1918.

In the same year Katarine coordinated nursing volunteers at the Battle of Abaran and Sardarabad.

A member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation,[2] Zalyan-Manukyan was a candidate in the June 1919 parliamentary elections, and was one of three women elected alongside Perchuhi Partizpanyan-Barseghyan and Varvara Sahakyan.