For many decades, the contributions of Rev. Dikran Andreassian to the history and continuation of the Armenian people were sadly neglected, due in no small part to his innate humility. Recently, however, Armenians in Beirut honored his memory by a ceremony in which Rev. Andreassian¹s remains were re-interred in the courtyard of the Armenian Evangelical Church of Ainjar, Lebanon, home for the expatriates of Musa Dagh and their descendants; his stone bust was also erected in the courtyard of the nearby St. Boghos church. A re-examination of his life and efforts thus seems justified at this juncture, given his pivotal role in one of the best known acts of resistance committed by Armenians during the Ottoman atrocities.

Early Biography

Dikran Andreassian was born in 1888, in the Musa Dagh region, in the village of Yoghoun-Olouk, Turkey. He received his early education in the local parochial school. At age 14, he was sent to Aintab to continue his education in the Central Turkey College. He graduated in 1911, after a number of interruptions, during which he served as a teacher and preacher in different villages. In the fall of the same year, Dikran entered the Marash Theological Seminary, from which he graduated in 1914, with a degree in theology. He married Araxi Muncherian and together they moved to Zeytoun to serve the local Armenian Evangelical church.

His ministry in Zeytoun was curtailed because of the devilish designs of the Turkish government to annihilate its Christian Armenian subjects. The Young Turk government began to execute its plan of deportation with the Armenian provinces in Cilicia, with heroic Zeytoun being its first target.

The young minister and his family‹wife, mother, and sister‹were also ordered to leave Zeytoun. However, through the intercession of American missionaries, the Andreassians were allowed to return to their native village of Yoghoun-Olouk. The family endured a terrible ordeal during this journey, which can fill a book in itself. The young pastor was also given the responsibility of delivering 40 Armenian orphans safely to an orphanage in Marash. His daring confrontations with Turkish officials to obtain safe conduct for the orphans nearly cost him his life. In addition, he had to take care of his pregnant wife, his sister and elderly mother.

Andreassian¹s first-hand experiences with Turkish officials and their brutal and inhuman treatment of the defenseless Armenians left him no illusions about the genocidal designs of the Ottoman government. This is why he became a strong advocate of self-defense when he met with the representatives of the villages in Musa Dagh.

Resistance at Musa Dagh and Beyond

In his book Escape to Musa Dagh, Rev. Andreassian downplays his role as a leader and mastermind of the defense council. He was fully aware of the precariousness of his position vis-à-vis the Turkish government on the one hand, and his own people on the other. Inexperienced though he was, he used his natural talents and college education to the fullest to organize the defense, to form committees and to set disciplinary rules for the 4,200 fugitives. He himself conceived the plans for rescue and prepared the historic banner with the sign of a red cross on it. He wrote and sent out rescue appeals to the representatives of the Great Powers in the area, and to the commanders of the war ships in the Mediterranean.

Any reader of Andreassian¹s volume will see that he does not claim credit himself He remains silent about all his undertakings and accomplishments. Having lived with him under the same roof during the last twenty years of his life as his son-in-law, I had the privilege of obtaining from him additional information and comments in regard to this great saga. He was emphatic on one point - that the self defense of Musa Dagh was the joint venture of the population in the area, meaning that no single political party or individual should claim credit for the successful conclusion of that battle of liberation.

Following the repatriation of the Musa Dagh refugees, Rev. Andreassian served number of churches in Syria. He lost his wife in 1927. In 1928 he married Zarouhie Dedeyan.. He begat a total of nine children, six by his first wife and three by his second. He retired from active ministry in 1957 and died in January, 1962, in Beirut, Lebanon.

Besides his book on Musa Dagh¹s defense, Andreassian wrote a didactic book, Krisdoneagan, on Christian faith to be used in Evangelical schools. He also devoted the last 15 years of his life to documenting the dialect used by the Armenians of Musa Dagh. The final product, Suedioh Parpareh; Kistouniki Lezoun, is a comprehensive presentation of that dialect, its grammar, syntax, and vocabulary. It was published posthumously in 1967 by the Academy of Sciences in Yerevan, Armenia.

Franz Werfel¹s Forty Days and Rev. Andreassian

The plight of the Armenians of Musa Dagh is well known to non-Armenians chiefly as the result of Franz Werfel¹s novel, The Forty Days of Musa Dagh. A number of studies have been made about the possible sources for this book. In the very brief preface to the book¹s first edition in 1934, the author refers to his stay in Damascus, Syria, in March of 1929. He writes, "The miserable sight of some maimed and famished-looking refugee children, working in a carpet factory, gave me the final impulse to snatch from the Hades of all that was, this incomprehensible destiny of the Armenian nation."

Though contemporaries, Werfel and Andreassian did not have any direct correspondence with each other. However, the two were in indirect communication through their mutual friend, the late Rev. Antranik Bedikian, then pastor of the Armenian Evangelical Church in New York City. But it must be stated that whatever correspondence Bedikian may have had with Andreassian on Werfel and his book, it took place after the publication of Forty Days. It is interesting to note that Bedikian¹s friendship with Werfel began when the latter visited New York for the first time right after the Second World War. A big testimonial celebration was held at the Armenian Evangelical Church to honor the great Austrian author and friend of the Armenians.

A thorough study of the background sources used by Werfel in constructing his work of historical fiction was made by George Schulz-Behrend. The main results of this study are quoted and summarized below.

It is related that Werfel visited the Armenian Catholic Mekhitarist Congregation in Vienna and consulted first with the abbot, and then with Father Thomas Kachazn, a Musa Daghtzi born in Yoghoun-Olouk. They furnished some oral information and a number of printed books from their library. However, "for reasons of prudence, the Mekhitarists requested Werfel not to mention them in connection with the novel. They feared Turkish reprisals."

The main source for Forty Days is Rev. Andreassian¹s long and informative article "Suedia: An Episode from the Time of the Armenian Persecution." He had written it after the evacuation of the refugees to Egypt, and it was translated into English by the Rev. Stephen Trowbridge, Secretary of the American Red Cross at Cairo. The translator communicated it to the editor of the Armenian journal, Ararat, based in London, who published it in the issue of November, 1915. Later, this article appeared as an official document in The Treatment of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire , or "Blue Book", London, 1916. It also appeared under a different title, "A Red Cross That Saved Four Thousand," which was published first in The Outlook.

For the main plot of his novel, Werfel followed Andreassian¹s "Suedia..."; for some episodes, he made use of different pamphlets and magazine articles written by the great Armenophile, Dr. Johannes Lepsius. For Armenian historical and cultural information, Werfel used von Paul Rohrbach¹s Articles about Armenian Lands and the Armenian People (Stuttgart, 1919), which contained "numerous essays by experts on various topics."

For the leader of the defense, Werfel created the fictitious character of Gabriel Bagradian, who had no real counterpart in the history of the resistance. Schulz-Behrend makes the following comment about why the character of Aram Tomasian (who was modeled after Rev. Andreassian) could not have been made the sole religious head of his people: "ŠBut Tomasian is a Protestant, a member of a religious minority group among the dominant Gregorians who, though historically they had no single leader on Musa Dagh, nevertheless have a just claim to representation under the more nearly Œnormal¹ conditions a work of art demands. Hence, Werfel created Ter Haigasun, the priest of a very ancient and venerable creed."

We believe that this is a fair assessment of the role of Rev. Andreassian, as seen by many Armenian political leaders and the Armenian people at large. It also explains why this great hero did not enjoy the praise and popularity he certainly deserved.

Œ"Hooshamadian Musa Leran," a commemorative album on Musa Dagh, published by the Compatriotic Society of Musa Dagh, Beirut, Lebanon, 1970.
"Sources and Background of Werfel¹s Novel, ŒDie Vierzig Tage des Musa Dagh¹ ", by George Schulz-Behrend. The Germanic Review, Vol. XXVI, No. 2, pp. 11-123; published by the Department of Germanic Languages of Columbia University, New York, April 1951.
A new edition of this book, edited by Ara Sarafian, has been recently published by the Gomidas Institute.
Volume CXI, December I, 1915. The contents of this article are almost identical to the one in the Blue Book

Note: Rev. Darakjian, the immediate past editor of Forum, is currently serving as the interim pastor of the First Armenian Evangelical Church of Glendale.

This article has been adapted from two prefatory chapters written by Rev. Darakjian for the book Escape to Musa Dagh, or The Banishment of Zeitoun and Suedia 's Revolt by Rev. Dikran Andreassian, tr. Knarik Meneshian (Paramus, NJ. Armenian Missionary Association ofAmerica. 1993).