Today Aurora Prize premium finalists, a well-known Hollywood actor George Clooney, and the founder of Aurora Prize Ruben Vardanian, were the first visitors of the Armenian Genocide Museum, reported the museum press service to Armenian News- NEWS.am.

During their visit director of the museum Hayk Demoyan accompanied them personally to tell in details about the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire . The guests also saw a new exhibition dedicated to a genocide survivor Aurora Mardikanyan, who the prize is titled after. The collection includes Mardikanyan’s family photos , personal belongings , shots of the film based on her book, and posters of that film.

After having viewed the exhibition, the group joined the RA President Serzh Sargsyan, and honored the memory of the Genocide victims. Also, during the first half of the day several hundred guests visited the museum who came to the event organized within the framework of Aurora Prize. In  total, the museum had more than one hundred thousand visitors for 2015.

Aurora Prize award has been established to thank rescuers on behalf of all the survivors of the Armenian Genocide, in memory of their courage they had performed a century ago. The prize will be awarded to modern heroes who sacrifice themselves for the sake of others’ survival. The organizers of the event are the Armenian businessmen Ruben Vardanian and Nubar Afeyan, and the chairman of Carnegie Corporation Vartan Grigorian . The ceremony of the award will be held on April 24 in Yerevan. George Clooney will announce the name of the winner.