The Dawn of Aurora Mardiganian

At 14 years old, Aurora Mardiganian He lived quietly with his people in CemisgezekOttoman territory. It was a prosperous family. 1915 was passing. What had begun, for the historian Eric Hobsbawmbecame the first modern attempt to eliminate an entire people. He armenian genocide was perpetrated between that year and 1923 by the Young Turksnewly formed soldiers of the Ottoman Empire War Academy who were enrolled in the call Unity and Progress Committee. They supported Germany in the World War I. Armenians were branded as saboteurs for their support of Russia.

In that context, indecipherable for a teenager like Aurora (Arshaluyshis real name), his father ignored the advice of a Kurdish pastor about the imminent massacre that was going to end the lives of between one and a half and two million Armenian civilians. They killed him, as well as the rest of his family, subjected to humiliations that exposed the most infamous side of the human condition. She never got over the pain of having seen rivers and deserts filled with corpses, and women and children begging for their lives while slavers plundered caravans of survivors.

“Aurora passed away without having been awarded or recognized for her enormous efforts.”…»

Perhaps Aurora, who died in 1994, never imagined that her life would become an emblem of the struggle of her people, the Armenians, against the systematic denialism of the current Türkiye in the face of that massacre, inspiring Holocaust. The story, first published in 1918 after escaping the slave markets of Anatolia and to travel Tbilisi, Saint Petersburg and Oslo to arrive at New Yorkwas going to be captured in the silent film Auction of Soulsreleased in 1919. Eduardo Kozanlian He retrieved two rolls and pushed in Argentina the book edition Armenia devastated: Auction of souls.

“…In fact, he had a very difficult life and, unfortunately, after his fame in Hollywood, his story was completely forgotten”

The book, published in chapters in American newspapers in 1917, was titled Armenia. The Story of Aurora Mardiganian, the Christian Girl, Who Survived the Great Massacres. Prologue, now, to the shocking Aurora’s Sunrisea documentary that combines animation with short scenes from the silent film starring Aurora and interviews in which she confessed her regrets and those of her people to escape from barbarism and fulfill the promise of disclosing the details of the armenian genocide in USAwhere it was filmed.

The director of the film, Inna Sahakyaninterviewed by Pablo Kendikiandirector of Armenian Newspaper and author of the book Fethullah Gülenstates: “Aurora passed away without having been awarded or recognized for her enormous efforts. In fact, he had a very difficult life and, unfortunately, after his fame in hollywoodhis story was completely forgotten.” A shocking portrait or, as Sahakyan says, “a beautiful and shocking act of heroism from devastating tragedies that could have plagued her with pain throughout her life.” It is, in Spanish, Dawn of Aurora.

Note: this is an article republished from the media “El Interin” through a cooperation agreement between both parties for the dissemination of journalistic content. original link.

Jorge Elías is a prominent Argentine journalist specializing in international politics and international relations. He was a correspondent in the United States, Mexico and Canada, as well as has vast experience in investigations related to international politics. He is also a member of the Institute of International Politics of the National Academy of Moral and Political Sciences and a consulting member of the Argentine Council for International Relations (CARI).