This year on April 24th, we once again remember all the Armenian people who lost their lives during the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire in 1915. My great-grandmother’s entire family was killed along with 1.5 million Armenian people. My great-grandmother survived concentration camps in the Syrian Desert. She was only 16 years old and the only one from her entire family who survived. She went through hell, but she stayed alive. She survived, she preserved her heritage, she was a proud Armenian woman. Turkey failed to kill her, and they failed to make her forget who she was and who her family and nation were.
She did not speak a lot about what she saw and experienced during the Genocide (she tried to protect her daughter and grandchildren). When she spoke, we saw how strong she was. Even after going through everything she went through, she still was an incredibly kind woman and grandmother who loved her children more than anything. She passed away when I was a child. I remember the day she died and the day of her funeral. So many people came to pay their last respects to this strong woman. As a child, I loved her and respected her because she was my great-grandmother. After the massacre of the Armenian people in Baku, after I went through what my great-grandmother went through, I understand how strong she was to go on with her life after everything.
I don’t know if she had “bad dreams” every night as I am having. I do know every single generation of women in my family went through genocide and massacres by Turkey and Azerbaijan. Every single woman from my great-grandmother to me. Every generation in my family (from both sides) experienced genocide, massacres, deportation, and relocations. We say to each other that we are lucky, we survived, we escaped. We did more than survive. We are Armenian people, and we remember who we are and where we came from. We are people of the Armenian nation. We are alive; we create, we build, and we are preserving our heritage.
Turkey and Azerbaijan tried to kill us; they wanted to erase us from the face of the Earth. They failed. We are still here and going nowhere. The entire world saw what they did and do and will never forgive them for that.
If I could, I would say all the names of the people who lost their lives in Turkey during the Armenian Genocide in 1915. I don’t know all of the names, but I know the name of my great-grandmother, the woman who SURVIVED the Armenian Genocide. Her name is Sonya. I want the world to remember this brave and strong woman, and I want the world to know her name.

My family has only one image of my great-grandmother Sonya and I painted it today

We know what Turkey did to us, to Armenian people, because of the many brave people worldwide who saw it and told the world about it. We know it because of the stories of survivors.
Aurora Mardiganian is one of the survivors who told the world the truth about the Armenian Genocide. I re-read her book a few weeks ago, I was reading the book, and I was hoping that maybe she would mention the name of my great-grandmother or her family. I was hoping because Aurora and her family were in concentration camps in the Syrian Desert as my great-grandmother was.
In memory of Aurora, I painted her as a small thank you.

As an Armenian woman, as a survivor of Armenian massacres by Azerbaijan people in Baku, I will continue telling my story and the story of my family to anyone willing to listen. I will continue telling what I saw because this could help to prevent the next genocide or massacres.
I don’t want anyone to see what we saw, and I want people to sleep at night without trying to escape in their dreams over and over and over.
When we try to survive, we have no other option but to fight, try to do everything possible to stay alive and keep our loved ones alive. We are in survival mode. To let go of survival mode is the most challenging part, and I am still working on it.

If you want to make a difference and have the ability to do so, please, consider donating to the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative

During the Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Empire in 1915, the biggest part of the Armenian male population was killed. The survivors are mostly women. This year for April 24th, I painted the image of the Armenian woman who survived and who brave enough to protect her loved ones, who were brave enough to preserve Armenian culture and nation. The dove in her hands represents all of us, all Armenians around the world.