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4 unusual facts about Ravished Armenia


Aurora Mardiganian

The first New York performance of the silent film, entitled Ravished Armenia took place on February 16, 1919, in the ballroom of the Plaza Hotel, with society leaders, Mrs. Oliver Harriman and Mrs. George W. Vanderbilt, serving as co-hostesses on behalf of the American Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief.

In New York, she was approached by Harvey Gates, a young screenwriter, who helped her write and publish a narrative that is often described as a memoir titled Ravished Armenia (full title Ravished Armenia; the Story of Aurora Mardiganian, the Christian Girl, Who Survived the Great Massacres (1918).

Ravished Armenia

The film prepared in 1918-1919 was first screened in London and in 1920 was shown twice daily for three weeks at the Royal Albert Hall to obtain support for the protection of national minorities.

She later moved to Tbilisi (Tiflis) in the Caucusus and through the mediation of General Andranik Ozanian and orders of the Russian military leadership in the Caucasus was sent to the United States for recovery and to bear witness to the sufferings of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.



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