FRANZ WERFEL DECEIVED…
By Hakob Asatrian, Prague

AZG Armenian Daily
10/04/2007

New Turkish Insinuations with the Aid of a Rabbi

On the eve of April 24 the Turks start a new insult in an attempt
to confuse the world society about the Armenian Genocide. "Mlada
Fronta Dnes" daily newspaper, Czech Republic, published a couple
of rather interesting articles about the issue of the Genocide on
April 5, 2007. Author of the first article Liubomir Hegel analyzed
the US Congress Resolution on the Armenian Genocide and its possible
influences on the USA-Turkey relations.

The author notices that President Bush uses various word describing
the crime committed in 1915 by the Turkish authorities but is warned
against using the term "genocide".

Then Werfel describes the relations between the White House and the
Congress, Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s intention of adopting the Resolution,
the efforts of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Ministries to fail it
and the visits of the Turkish delegations to Washington. Nevertheless
the author admits that most possibly, the Resolution shall be passed,
due to the influence of the Armenian Diaspora that is three time bigger
in number than the population of the Republic of Armenia. At the same
time he thinks that the Resolution won’t have the same importance as
the French law about the Genocide.

The second article is actually an anonymous message received by the
newspaper from Los Angeles. The message says that the Austrian writer
Wranz Werfel, author of the famous novel "The 40 Days of Musa Dag"
confessed his friend, a Rabbi, that he was deceived.

Allegedly Werfel said his friend that he heard the story from an
Armenian bishop, but after having studied the works of independent
researches, realized that he was told lies and felt sorry about writing
the novel. The message also alleged that the Rabbi witnessed this at
the public notary’s office in 1989 but did not publish the document
being afraid of Armenian terrorists.

This is all the message published in "Mlada Fronta Dnes" says. If
the information is true, it could be verified by any note in Weflels’
memoirs. But there is no such note. Moreover, no Armenian terrorist
organization existed in Werfel’s time that could threaten him. A novel
is not written in an instant. It requires work of many years, during
which an author is studying all available material about the plot. So
did Werfel. In 1929 he even visited an Armenian orphanage in Syria,
heard the stories immediately from the victims of the Genocide. Our
Austrian sources assure nothing was known of the Rabbi’s witness
ever before.

A few years ago a Turkish historian in a similar manner tried to
criticize the novel, but he was paid no attention. Thus, it comes
clear that the Turks are trying to spread a lie by the means of
Jewish Rabbis, being conscious that the novel by Franz Werfel has
more influence on the European public that any resolution adopted by
governmental or international structures.