A New York rabbi and Nazi-hunter Beate Klarsfeld of Paris are in Istanbul this week to protest the planned reception of Austrian President Kurt Waldheim by Turkish President Kenan Evren.
Rabbi Avraham Weiss of New York’s Riverdale section, in a telephone call from Istanbul Tuesday to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, said that he and Klarsfeld will try to protest at a dinner reception planned for Wednesday.
Weiss said the two will try beforehand to present Evren with the file on Waldheim compiled by the World Jewish Congress, in an attempt to convince the Turkish leader not to see the Austrian president, who has been implicated in atrocities committed during World War II.
Barring this possibility, Weiss said he and Klarsfeld “will stand vigil as a voice of moral conscience when Evren meets with Waldheim.”
Turkey is the first NATO country to receive Waldheim in his capacity as Austrian president. He previously visited Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.
Last week, eight of the 13 members of the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Europe and the Middle East sent a telegram to Evren and Prime Minister Turgut Ozal urging them not to meet with Waldheim.
“As members of Congress who value Turkish-U.S. relations, we are appalled and shocked at the news that Kurt Waldheim will be received by you in early November,” the lawmakers said.
Waldheim was to stop in Turkey after official visits to Syria and Kuwait. The leader of the Green party faction in the Austrian Parliament demanded last week that Waldheim urge the Syrians to extradite Nazi war criminal Alois Brunner.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
