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ARMENIAN - Erevangala500

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absolutely nothing to do with the race or origin o f the<br />

inhabitants was (and is) forgotten. In "America" live<br />

"Americans" with Italian, German, Irish, British, Indian,<br />

Chinese or African roots etc. etc.<br />

And in "Armenia" people o f Turkish, Iranian, Georgian,<br />

Azerbaijanian origin, also a minority o f "Haiks" who<br />

make just use o f the habit to be called "Armenians".<br />

When Franz W erfel's book appeared it had a remarcable<br />

echo, right from the beginning. A thriller, pretending to<br />

present history!<br />

At first within the German-speaking world and soon later<br />

within the entire "educated" reading public where the on<br />

dit counts more than knowledge the "40 Days..." became<br />

a kind o f a new Bible. The message was clear:<br />

"How long, О LORD, holy and true, dost thou not judge<br />

and avenge our blood on them that dwell on earth?"<br />

Werfel had choosen this verse (Revelation V I, 19) as a<br />

motto for his masterpiece. Unfortunately he became -<br />

with this motto and his book - the father o f Armenian<br />

post-war terrorism, which killed not only so many innocent<br />

people but also the reputation o f a whole nation.<br />

The creation o f terror-groups and fanatic murderes who<br />

blindly killed and killed (remember O rly!") absolutely<br />

innocent passengers or Turkish diplomats (remember my<br />

friend Erdogan Ozen) who were bom long after the<br />

events during World War I was only possible with indoc­<br />

trination - and the base was always W erfel's fake story.<br />

T*. ^ h u iIjL u if l b»|»fibruri|<br />

rnG p (iu s n q p ^iuG i|iu|ti!sbuG G t * UnjG l|UjiiuumGI>rf><br />

Men and the Commanders o f the first peloton o f the 8th<br />

Company o f the Armenian Hintchakian Regiment and the staff<br />

o f the attached professional Red Cross team: A priviledge<br />

which belonged only to the w ell trained best equipped<br />

Armenian insurgents all over the Ottoman Empire, thanks to<br />

the funds sponsored by American protestants and Russian<br />

imperialists.<br />

86<br />

The mountain of Moses and the lowlands of Alma<br />

and Franz Werfel<br />

While rocks and cliffs are indeed a feature o f the "moun­<br />

tain o f M oses", the general landscape corresponds in no<br />

way to the picture that Werfel suggests to his readers. The<br />

area is just as unheroic as the truth about the uprising pro­<br />

voked by the French with all the technical means at their<br />

disposal. French warships brought the Armenian sol-<br />

datesca firstly to Suez and then to the Syrian front, but<br />

their behaviour resulted in the British and French imme­<br />

diately withdrawing them from active service.<br />

At the end Werfel decided to describe the story (not his­<br />

tory!) o f an Armenian settlement near the crossroads<br />

Damascus-Iskenderun, i. e, Anatolia and Syria.<br />

Armenians should serve as victims, bloody Turks as<br />

killers.<br />

Actually Werfel did not definitely mean unscrupulous<br />

"Young Turks" and innocent "H a ik "... no, Werfel, as<br />

a poet and most sensible seismograph already feeling<br />

the coming earthquakes, caused by the Germ an Nazis<br />

who would start to extinguish the Jewish race, just<br />

took the chance. C harade? No. Parable? Yes. At the<br />

expense of the T urks...<br />

We cannot understand that Franz Werfel did not investi­<br />

gate a little bit more. He would soon have discovered that<br />

the Ottomans had saved lakhs o f Jews - around 200 000 -<br />

from the terror o f the "Catholic kings" in Spain (1494).<br />

By the way, again during Hitler's tyranny some 30 000<br />

German, Austrian, European Jews found a save heaven<br />

in Turkey; not a single one was repulsed or handed over<br />

to the Nazis despite most severe German threats. (It is a

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