“Thanks to Aurora, I met people who taught me the most important lesson: remaining true to human values and your own principles, irrespective of the situation, and following your path. My decision to move to Artsakh — Nagorno Karabakh — was motivated by the Aurora heroes: I made a choice to be with the people who needed help and wanted to help in any way I could. Being here, totally isolated from the world for nearly eight months, I have a lot of time to reflect. […] I am now more convinced than ever before, that values and principles are more important than even life itself.”

During the 2024 Aurora Prize Ceremony that took place on May 9, Veronika Zonabend, Founding Partner and Chair of the Board of Governors of the UWC Dilijan and the wife of Aurora Co-Founder Ruben Vardanyan, read his message delivered from a prison in Baku, where he remains unjustly imprisoned by the government of Azerbaijan.