Story of Aurora

Many of you have already heard about the Aurora Prize. For those who didn’t, Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity is an annual international humanitarian award recognizing individuals for humanitarian work. The Aurora Prize ceremonies take place annually in Armenia starting from April 24, 2016.

The creation of the Aurora Prize was inspired by many stories of the rescue of Armenians during the Armenian Genocide. The prize is named after Aurora Mardiganian (Arshaluys Martikanian) - a woman who lived through uncountable horrors of the Genocide.

Arshaluys(Aurora) Martikian was born in 1901 in the town of Chmshkatsag in the Dersim province, which is now the Tunceli Province in modern-day Turkey. Arshaluys was a promising student and budding violinist before the terrible events of 1915 started to unfold. She saw her father and a brother killed and was forced, with her mother and sisters, to join the mass deportation of Armenian women to the deserts of Syria.

The narrative Ravished Armenia was used for writing a film script that was produced in 1919, Mardiganian playing herself. Aurora Mardiganian recalled sixteen young Armenian girls being "crucified" by their Ottoman tormentors. The film showed the victims nailed to crosses, however, almost 70 years later Mardiganian revealed to film historian Anthony Slide that the scene was inaccurate and went on to describe what was actually impalement. She stated that "The Turks didn't make their crosses like that. The Turks made little pointed crosses. They took the clothes off the girls. They made them bend down, and after raping them, they made them sit on the pointed wood, through the vagina. That's the way they killed - the Turks. Americans have made it a more civilized way. They can't show such terrible things."

It is for her extraordinary resilience and her ability to give back, in spite of the suffering she faced, that today we remember Aurora Mardiganian. She died aged 92 in a California care home after a life marked and marred by the early loss and cruelty she endured, but also by the strong desire to help others.