Ten Volumes of Italian Diplomatic Documents on Armenians Soon to Be Completed

 Aram Arkun

In the scholarly world, serious major projects can take years to complete. It took more than 20 years to publish two series of volumes of the Italian archival series Documenti Diplomatici Italiani sull’Armenia [Italian Diplomatic Documents on Armenia], and this does not include prior planning and preparation time. This series of documents will save historians, political scientists and other scholars both time and money for decades to come by making primary sources on modern Armenian history easily accessible. It is a project that should be better known to Armenians around the world.

How Herzl sold out the Armenians

 Rachel Elboim-Dror

The Armenian question has occupied the Zionist movement since a mass killing of Armenians was carried out by the Turks in the mid 1890s – prior even to the First Zionist Congress. [Theodor] Herzl’s strategy was based on the idea of an exchange: The Jews would pay off the Ottoman Empire’s huge debt, in return for the acquisition of Palestine and the establishment of a Jewish state there, with the major powers’ consent. Herzl had been working hard to persuade Sultan Abdul Hamid II to accept the proposal, but to no avail.

Discovering Zabelle

Carla Friedman

 

Thus they shall hear and see the Beauties of nature, and imprint the spirit of the times, not only for the advancement of the present, but for the benefit of generations to come.”

–Zabelle Abdalian, 1934

Wandering through an antique shop in the seaside village of Cayucos, Calif., I stumbled upon an impeccably preserved little book, entitled Scientific Air Possibilities with the Human, by Zabelle Abdalian, 1934. Inspired by the life of a “Madame Mary A. Harper,” whose biography is detailed in the author’s introduction, this theosophical compilation of essays includes thoughts on the “beneficial effects of natural radium in the air,” esoteric views on body, mind, spirit, science, technology, theology, and economics. Intrigued, I descended the sea-washed wooden stairway, bought the book, and walked, face to page, to a bench overlooking the Pacific.