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Diana Agabeg Apcar was a prolific writer, whose works took many forms. We have divided her works into five categories: Articles, Book Covers, Books, Poems, and Quotes, to facilitate access to this web site. This collection is by far not complete, as we continue to search for her works.
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Links within Diana’s Writings section:
Articles
Book Covers
Books 
Poems 
Quotes 
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Quotes provides selections from Diana’s books which we consider particularly interesting, as they summarize key concepts or ideas.

From SUSAN
(page 7 of typed copy)

“She was always a queer child’ Mrs. Malcolm said to herself about Susan, she had always been strange, precociously thoughtful, exquisitely sensitive, drawing in into herself, repelled by as much as a glance, lavishing a wealth of affection on a battered doll, hugging to sleep puppy dogs in her arms, weeping profusely over the pages of story books, things of which Mrs. Malcolm’s childhood contained no reminiscences…”
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From HOME STORIES OF THE WAR
Dedicated to the Japanese People
(page 21 of typed copy)

“Thou smiling land where thy people live in an atmosphere of kindness one to another! Charming Japan! Thy imagery softly limns itself as the delicately tinted bloom of thy cherry blossoms in spring, and fresh as the foam of thy own sea surf; grandly bursting into the vivid force of thy fiery patriotism as the Rising Sun’s crimson flame. Keep thy delicate bloom and thy fresh foam in all the graces of thy light hearted youth: in the happy children, thy soft voiced gentle-mannered women, and all thy kind courageous well bred well behaved people: keep thy true civilization as thy most precious possession; and ever more keep the crimson flame of thy fiery patriotism that binds together a whole nation as one heart, loyal into death.”

From HOME STORIES OF THE WAR
I. The Only Son
(page 4 of typed copy)

“Nakajima returned to his house, he sat by the fire meditative; somewhere in his heart something had been wrenched off, but his composed face showed no signs of the struggle within; he was thinking; mechanically his hand sought the pipe in his waist band, filled its little bowl with tobacco and lit it at the hibatchi 4 fire, he puffed out a few whiffs and then beat the ashes out on the hibatchi; his thoughts found expression in words. “It is the highest honor for a man to serve his country in her need” he said turning to his wife: on her face there was an abstracted expression, in her eyes an absent far away look: she was looking back through memory to the past when the patter of childish feet, the circling of childish arms round her neck, and the joyous piping of a childish voice had gladdened her heart: the son had been a common bond of sympathy between them, but in her heart there were memories that had never found any place in his, in her life there were experiences such as he had never known; however the country had need of him, and a Japanese mother bears sons to serve their country….

They had received one postcard. Just a line to say that he was well; another followed; and then after a longer interval, a postcard from a comrade to tell them that he had died fighting bravely for his country, and his body was one of those that piled up the ramparts under cover of which his comrades fought. “My son has died well” said Nakajima: the wolf of natural anguish was tearing at his vitals, but the cloak of outward composure was tightly drawn over “thou and I” he said addressing his wife “must be thankful that our son has died for his country’ she bent her head low until her face fell over her knees. All the years of love were laid down at the country’s shrine, she had borne him and reared him, and given him up for the country’s cause, the highest sacrifice of which the human heart was capable had been completed, she had no words to utter, they died away on her lips.”

From HOME STORIES OF THE WAR
II. The Mother of the Kondo
(page 7 of typed copy)

“It was in the month of May when the bloom of the wisteria hangs in long rich purple clusters, and the thick knotted vine in the garden drooped low its trails of regal splendor; she remembered how the seat under the vine was a favorite resort of her eldest son; she spoke of him that morning to her servant “ How Todashi would have liked to sit here now” she said; the tears rolled down her servant’s cheeks, and both mistress and servant walked silently away, for the faint sweet fragrance of the purple flowers seemed to press down on their hearts with a weight of pain.

The splendor of the vine drooping, and the purple petals lay scattered on the ground when the news came of that fierce battle of Nanshan, and of the last fiercest assault when the heights were carried at the point of the bayonet: shortly after followed the information-Lieut Todashi Kondo was one of those who had bravely fought and bravely died in capturing the eminence.
Throughout the night she sat on folded knees on the tatami, her faithful servant a few paces away, once a long anguished cry escaped her and the faithful servant shivered and shook; but the next day she could meet sympathizing friends with a smile, and to their expressions of regret reply that ‘her son had died for his country, and she was thankful he had died with success.’”

From HOME STORIES OF THE WAR
III. Commander Masao Sakurai and His Father
(page 9 of typed copy)

“The war cloud was hanging over the country and it was a period of intense anxiety and suspense ‘would that I had seven lives to lay them down seven times for my country’ the son had said, and the father had replied ‘well spoken my son: would that I had seven sons like you to give them all up for my country!’ ‘You must not regret me if I die’ said Masao Sakurai to his mother at his leave taking as he started off to be in readiness at duty’s call ‘you must rather be proud that you had a son to give to your country.’ A tremor had passed over her as he spoke but she had made no other outward sign of emotion; the daughter of a samurai, and the wife of a samurai had been disciplined in the school of fortitude, she could rise to the height of the mother of a samurai; it was the uttermost wrench of the heart-strings but she had been trained to bear it.”

From HOME STORIES OF THE WAR
V. Blacksmith
(pages 15-16 of typed copy)

“They had received two or three post cards from him, and then for a long interval there was no news: it was a period of anxiety, when at last the family were informed that he had been brought home wounded and was in the hospital of the Prefecture.

They would have all hastened to see him if they could, but it was beyond their means; however by pawning some clothes they were able to put together the necessary sum to enable the mother to undertake the journey. She went and returned in the course of a week; he was well cared for in the hospital and was progressing slowly towards recovery, and she had not the means to remain longer; but the grief of seeing his condition had fairly broken her down; he had lost one leg, and was maimed for life. He had laughingly told his mother that his leg had been lost in the service of his country and was not to be regretted, and she had felt that it was her duty to acquiesce in it; so she said to the others when she returned home, in which all concurred; only her mother’s heart was full of a pain that could not be quieted or soothed; though she never complained, and smilingly answered all the sympathetic enquires of her friends, and smilingly deprecated all regrets, since the misfortune to her son had occurred in the service of his country.”

From HOME STORIES OF THE WAR
VI. The Village
(page 17 of typed copy)

“So many had been taken away from the village the young-the strong-the able bodied – the call had come to join the colors and they had gone. The village had turned out to see them off with a mighty display of flags and streamers and village music, for the village was proud of being called upon to send out so many in the country’s service. They had gone from their humble joys and peaceful labours, and left behind the plough and the spade, the hoe the rake and the sickle, perhaps never again to hold them in their toil hardened hands; sons who were the sole support of aged parents, and men who had wives and young, children dependent on them. And there were rice fields to plough, farms to till, orchards to cultivate.

These should not be neglected so the village decided, for there were mouths at home to fill, and were not those who were gone, toiling in a fiercer labour, toiling with the sweat of blood in strife and wrath and din for the common cause of all; so the circle of help went round, those who were left to do the work at home, could by putting in a few extra hours do the work of those that had gone; and then there was the Oksan of that beautiful house of fragrant cedar that shone inside like smoothest satin, with tatamis of finest matting and shojis[1] of aesthetic brocade in polished lacquer frames, and the peaceful garden where the red and gold carp swam in the miniature (miniature) lake round the edge of which irises bloomed.”

[1] Shoji, screen or sliding door

From HOME STORIES OF THE WAR
VII. In the Shrine
(page 19 of typed copy)

“An old man and a little boy walked together hand in hand; the old man walked with slow measured paces, the little boy as he throttled along skipped and frisked; he hopped sometimes on one leg, sometimes on another; the little plump soft hand, and the time hardened, time shriveled one clasped each other; the fresh clear face with its rounded cheeks and bright eyes looked up into the lined and furrowed countenance, and the dimmed eyes of age; the joyous voice with its rippling treble notes spoke, it spoke incessantly, the old man answered occasionally in subdued tones; the thoughts of age were far away out of this present into the far farther unknown, the little boy’s mind conjured up thoughts from all around him.

The old man had lived many years in the world, and the world had laid its mark on him: the little one had newly come from the Eternal Dawn―Therein lay the difference.”
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From IN HIS NAME
(pages 10-11)

“The Treaty of San Stefano followed the (Russo-Turkish) War. The sixteenth article in this Treaty, which was the work of the Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople, provided that reforms were to be carried out in Turkish Armenia before the evacuation of the Russian troops and the commanders of those Russian troops waiting there to see the reforms carried out were men of Armenian race and descent, who had fought in the Czar’s service, it is true, but who had also fought for the liberation of their unhappy race under Turkish rule.

The Treaty of San Stefano was quashed by the might of England. Article 16 became invalid and the scene shifted to the Congress of Berlin.

The deepening but irrepressible Patriarch worked again, he sent his delegates, his chosen deputy, to the Congress of Berlin. This chosen deputy, afterwards Catholicos of Etchmiatzin, had already traveled through all the powerful states of Europe pleading the cause of his nation. At the Congress of Berlin he could not be heard. But he was so far successful that he had an article inserted, it was Article 61 of the Treaty of Berlin, by which the six signatories to the Treaty pledged themselves to see that the urgent and needed reforms which meant life or death to the Armenians were carried out. This affront was never forgotten and never forgiven either by the Sultan or the Turkish nation. The reforms of course were never carried out, for they could only have been carried out by force, but the deadly hatred of the tyrant grew in its intensity.”

From IN HIS NAME
(page 12)

“The situation grew worse and worse. It became insupportable. Murders, robberies, abductions, extortion, tortures, imprisonments, were the order of the day, life for the subject Armenians reached the stage when life became unbearable; they appealed to the six Signatories of the Treaty of Berlin; they appealed especially to England as the Power that had substituted the Treaty of Berlin for the Treaty of San Stefano, and the hatred of the tyrant reached the pitch of madness.”

From IN HIS NAME
(pages 16-17)

“A British diplomat once said to Prince Lobanoff, “Why do you not annex Armenia?” and the Russian answer was, “We will annex Armenia, when there shall be no more Armenians left.”
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From PEACE AND NO PEACE
(page 1 of typed copy)

“The lust of power and the lust of gold and the lust of territory have been the altars on which human flesh and blood, and the happiness of human life, have ever been sacrificed in our world.

If the nations will have Peace! Let them break the altars of ambition and greed in their own countries, and let them say to their own politicians and their own capitalists: “We will have Peace!”

The nations of Europe have cried out Peace! Peace! But the cry that has proceeded from their throats only, and not from their hearts; they have each and every one of them been desirous only to see the altars of greed and ambition broken down in the other men’s countries, whilst eagerly stipulating to keep their own; and if Peace must come into the world, it can only come when the cry has gone forth from the hearts of the nation.”

From PEACE AND NO PEACE
(page 4 of typed copy)

“The great Powers of Europe treat the small nations as billiard-players treat the balls on a billiard-table; they strike the helpless balls of the small nations with their political cues, and the balls have to go rolling here and there at the stroke of the players.

‘The Ball no question makes of Ayes and Noes,
But here and there as strikes the player goes.’”

From PEACE AND NO PEACE
(page 7 of typed copy)

“The nations have cried out Peace! Peace!

Peace can only come out of Righteousness, even as Strife cometh out of Unrighteousness; and we know where there is no Unrighteousness there is also no Strife.

But in countries with a Constitution, with a Parliament, with a Government in which the people have a share, there can be no such thing as the guilt of governments without the guilt of nations. Sins are of two kinds—sins of commission, and sins of omission; it may be that the sins of the nations are more largely sins of omission than sins of commission, but they have undoubtedly combined with the sins of commission of the governments to help in the work of Unrighteousness.”

From PEACE AND NO PEACE
(pages 13-14 of typed copy)

“In the supplementary chapter, ‘Twenty Years of the Armenian Question,’ to his book, ‘Trans-Caucasia and Ararat,’ the author, Mr. James Bryce, writes:

‘Now the Turk, though a barbarian himself, has been able, and that largely by means of money borrowed in Europe, to provide his forces with all the most effective engines of destruction which science continues to invent, and has thus been able to rivet his yoke more firmly on the necks of his Christian subjects.’

In another page of the same chapter and book, Mr. Bryce continues:

‘Modern science has immensely increased the strength of a regular government, even the most inefficient government against insurgents. Troops provided with new field cannons and with rifles of the latest makes have now over men provided only with swords and daggers, or at best with old muskets or matchlocks, advantages for which no amount of personal bravery can compensate. What chance has the bravest man armed with a club or a knife or a pistol against a rifle which kills at one thousand yards.’

These undeniable facts represent the situation today, and stand as true now as when they were written in 1896, for as the world knows, Turkey is always able to negotiate loans in Christian Europe in order to equip herself with engines of slaughter for the destruction of the subject Christians. More than this: Turkey has always been able to command European Service in the training and drilling of Bashi-Bazouks and such-like soldiery that comprise the Turkish Army, in, as we are told, the work of making the Turkish Army ‘efficient’ and ‘re-modelling’ the Turkish Navy. This is one great factor that has worked through years of long-drawn out agony, and is taking its share to-day in all the slaughter, misery, woe, and desolation of those Christian peoples who are groaning under the Turkish yoke, and I would recommend this factor to the attention of the Peace Societies.

That the Turkish Government raises loans in Christian Europe for the purchase of arms and ammunition, field cannons and rifles that kill at a thousand yards, to hurl all these engines of slaughter and destruction on the unarmed Christian races (living on the soil of their Fatherland at present usurped by the Turks) and thus consummate their slaughter, destruction and desolation, is a glaring fact patent to the eyes of the whole civilized world.”

From PEACE AND NO PEACE
(page 17 of typed copy)

Might is Right in our world, as it always has been, and Justice is an Illusion which only Mercy looks at with wet eyes.
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The St. Louis, MO, Post-Despach wrote of Diana Agabeg Apcar’s book, The Peace Problem: “Diana Agabeg Apcar is a prophetess in exile. … She knows the Bible, Old and New, as she knows world-politics, and she comes nearer knowing both by heart than most diplomats. She pleads for peace in the name of Christianity against what she calls ‘the curse of the world—Imperialism.’ … Knowledge of world politics, absolute sincerity and burning eloquence characterize this inspired appeal.”

The Buffalo, NY, Buffalo News wrote of Diana Agabeg Apcar’s book, The Peace Problem: “…The indictment of those powers is a tremendous one because it is founded strictly on fact. The author recites the immeasurable cruelties of the late Sultan Abdul Hamid, but shows almost to a mathematical demonstration that the Young Turk party now in power is more atrociously and infinitely cruel, pitiless and wicked in the treatment of Armenians than the old Sultan ever was….”

From THE PEACE PROBLEM
(page 6)

“Wanton butchery of a people is murder. To strengthen and hold up the hands of the murderer is murder. To supply the murderer with death-dealing instruments is murder. Even if the exigencies of European politics and the interest of Turkish bondholders demand that the murder must be committed and condoned, yet God will demand the price of murder.“

From THE PEACE PROBLEM
(page 9)

“I recall a sentence from the word-pictures of an Armenian writing upon the woes of his nation. “The men have lost their reason, and the women have grown blind weeping for their dear ones,” and I remember that this is the work of the Powers of Europe.

They had forgotten to smile in the reign of the old Hamid; they have still more forgotten to smile in the reign of the latter-day Hamids, who have out-Hamided the old Hamid and his Hamidians.

But Germany and England have been courting the latter-day Hamids even as they courted the old Hamid and his Hamidians.”

From THE PEACE PROBLEM
(pages 10-11)

“Now it has become well known and established beyond the shadow of a doubt that the Armenian massacres of April, 1909, were planned, prepared and organized by the Constitutional Government of Turkey and carried out under their authority, and the first act of the Young Turks on coming into power was to order the second massacre of Adana. Kiamil Pasha, or as he is better known at Constantinople, Ingliz Pasha, belonged to one of the two groups who between themselves deliberately murdered (with the most horrible and hideous tortures), according to the most correct computation, about fifty thousand innocent Armenians (including women and children), and plunged at least one hundred thousand into homelessness and starvation.”

From THE PEACE PROBLEM
(page 12)

“The question is a very important one at the present time, since fears and threats of massacre by the Turkish Government have been hanging over the villages in Armenia for more than a year now, and there is more emigration to the United States and elsewhere of Armenians fleeing for their lives from the impending calamity than there was in 1895.”

From THE PEACE PROBLEM
(pages 16-17)

“We know of churches burned and desecrated; of Christian men, women and children hacked in pieces to death or burned alive, after all the ingenuities of torture which even hell could not devise had been exhausted over their bodies; of putrid flesh from Christian corpses crammed into the mouths of living Christians; and Christian mothers choked to death with the flesh and blood of their own children; of Christian wives entreating for death at the hands of their own husbands, and husbands in despair killing their own wives and themselves; of Christian men, women and children hiding in caves or barefooted and homeless starving for want of bread. But at such times no newspaper correspondent sends out flaming reports, and Christendom is not convulsed, only honours and decorations grow apace, and only those who are concerned about the sheep led to the slaughter tremble to think of what may follow.”

From THE PEACE PROBLEM
(pages 23-24)

“The curse of the world is Imperialism. But how the nations of the past and the nations of the present have striven to keep up Imperialism in our world.

What is Imperialism? And how shall we define it? Does not Imperialism mean taking what is not our own? Robbing another nation’s country to add it to our own. And by robbing other nations and other peoples, does not Imperialism create Strife, Bitterness, Heart burning, Race-hatred? Does not Imperialism keep up the cycle of wrong going round and round, and the cauldron of evil passions boiling? Is not Imperialism, therefore, the Evil Spirit that taketh hold of Peace and teareth it and bruiseth it and throweth it down?

God has willed “On earth peace,” but Imperialism destroys Peace. Is it therefore any matter of surprise that Imperialism should always end in decay and dissolution? No profit to itself at the last after filling up the cup of evil for others.

And yet how the nations of Europe struggle for Imperialism whilst talking of Peace.”

From THE PEACE PROBLEM
(page 25)

THE ANTHEM OF THE POWERS OF EUROPE
Long live our cannon and shell!
Turning our earth into hell;
Long live our rifles that kill!
Subject to our own sweet will:
Ever Victorious
Happy and Glorious.

The globe is within our plan,
We laugh at the rights of man;
Unfettered by sense of crime
List’ to the jingle of this rhyme:
Ever Victorious
Happy and Glorious.

From THE PEACE PROBLEM
(pages 26-27)

“In the days of my youth I have looked at the Himalayas. I can remember how my heart shut closer and closer, throbbed and grew still as I gazed spell-bound at the gigantic line, that vast impenetrable mass rising up from earth to sky.

How the shifting shadows came and went? Fairy shadows flitting over the sunlight’s gold, obscuring the heights of the glistening snow-line against the sky. The shadows enveloped those proud crests reared against the sky. But they are chased away, their drapers torn, parted asunder hither and thither by the sun-lion lifting up his tawny head. And the white snow line of that vast impenetrable mass rising up from the earth rested clear against the sky.

It was beautiful to watch; beautiful to feel; beautiful to meditate and dream.

Now another Himalayas rises to my mental vision; no beautiful shadows come and go, no sunlight’s fold rests on the white snow; but I see only a dull dead wall of crime rising up from earth to sky, and the specter shape of Peace flitting here and there finding no place on this dull dead wall of crime whereon to rest its feet.

But it must be that in spite of the exigencies of European politics and the interest of Turkish bondholders God’s angels will come to sap and undermine this wall of crime. I think they have begun the work already. I hear the ringing of a spade and a pickaxe that neither the governments nor the capitalists of Europe can break, the noises of a work they cannot stop. “

From THE PEACE PROBLEM
(pages 31-32)

“And this is what the Powers of Europe have been saying to Christian peoples, martyrs to Turkish bonds and European politics. ‘What is it that you seek? Is it that we must jeopardize the Turkish bonds for the sake of your blood and your flesh and your bones? Is it that we must renounce keeping up this hell upon earth where our interests are staked to prevent your destruction and desolation?’”

From THE PEACE PROBLEM
(page 41)

“I also marvel much when the conviction forces itself upon me that the whole fabric of European politics is built up on chicanery and fraud. Prince Gortschakoff said: “A Treaty! What is a Treaty? A Treaty is only made to be violated,” and if the politicians of other European countries have not openly committed themselves to this sentiment, they have many times acted in the spirit of it.”

From THE PEACE PROBLEM
(pages 45-46)

“There is also more to be said. The government of Abd-ul Hamid did not finish the massacres by instituting a court-martial which hanged innocent Armenians, but the government of Young Turkey instituted a court-martial at Adana after the massacres which hanged innocent Armenians. The government of Abd-ul Hamid did not finish the massacres by instituting a court-martial which put into prison those Armenians who had escaped the massacres, but the government of Young Turkey instituted a court-martial after the massacres which filled the loathsome Turkish prisons to overflowing with innocent Armenians. The government of Abd-ul Hamid, in their official announcements after each massacre, fixed the number of the Armenians dead at about one-tenth of the actual number murdered; the government of Young Turkey kept up the traditions of their fathers and did the same. The government of Abd-ul Hamid accused the victims of the massacres of provoking the massacres; the government of Young Turkey, keeping to the traditions of their fathers, did the same. The government of Abd-ul Hamid robbed the Armenians of their lands to make free gifts to the Turks and Kurds; the government of Young Turkey, following in the footsteps of their fathers, did the same.”

From THE PEACE PROBLEM
(page 56)

“Of course, it is very easy for Turks to massacre Armenians with all the gun-factories in Europe ready to supply the Turkish demand for man-slaying machinery. Perhaps when the money-lenders close the mortgage the Christians might be able to save their necks.”

From THE PEACE PROBLEM
(page 60)

“England—Russia—Germany. These three names are written in letters of fire across the pages of Armenian history. Armenia has been filled with horrors because England was jealous of Russia, because Russia wanted an Armenia without Armenians, and because Germany wanted her Baghdad railway.”

From THE PEACE PROBLEM
(page 64)

“Of course, the governments and the nations of Europe do not place the weak and powerless peoples in the category of “nations”: only those are considered “nations” and entitled to the rights of a “nation” who are possessors of fleets and armies and whose countries have not been forcibly taken away from them…”

From THE PEACE PROBLEM
(pages 70-71)

“Although I have denounced Turkish savage barbarisms, I have never failed to understand that ever evil to be destroyed must be struck at the root, and the root of the evil of Turkish savagery wreaked upon helpless Christians is the support of Civilised and Christian Europe. The power and sovereignty of the Turk are kept up by the Powers of Europe. Loans are raised for the Turkish Government in Christian Europe under the express condition that the money loaned should be in the purchase of the man-slaying machinery which the skill of modern science has devised, and these modern weapons of slaughter purchased in the markets of Europe are then passed by the Turkish Government into Moslem hands for killing and plundering the unarmed Christians. The deadly tragedy is perpetrated again and again, and the deadly instruments for perpetrating the tragedy are supplied again and again by Europe.“

From THE PEACE PROBLEM
(page 72)

“But peace can only come through pardon, and pardon through penitence: first Expiation, then Remission, Pardon, Peace.”

From THE PEACE PROBLEM
(pages 75-76)

“The concession of land twelve miles wide running from the Asiatic shores of the Bosphorous to the mouth of the Persian Gulf was given to Germany on the express understanding that the Sultan of Turkey and the Turkish nation should be allowed to do with the Armenians as they liked. They did as they liked. They murdered them with death-dealing instruments supplied by Europe.

This concession of land became therefore the field of blood, and so naturally the enterprise of the Baghdad railway hung fire. Our share in this concern has been to oppose the achievement of the enterprise because we could not bear to see Germany go ahead. Some years ago we slapped back Russian go-ahead-ness with the Treaty of Berlin. What that Berlin Treaty scourged out of Armenia those Armenian generals and soldiers who were waiting there to have those reforms carried out, which could only have been carried out by force, and save their nation and their country from murder and desolation. Now the tree of the Berlin Treaty which we planted has borne fruit for us, and we have German go-ahead-ness on our hands. Well, dead Armenians cannot come back to life again, and as they were only Armenians it does not much matter; but nevertheless, there has been created an intense tension between our two countries, and there is no middle course left to us out of this tight situation: either we must withdraw our opposition and allow Germany to go ahead, or Germany must take by force what we refuse to allow and go ahead, or we must keep on showing our teeth to one another until our teeth drop out of our heads.”

From THE PEACE PROBLEM
(pages 103-104)

“Thus Sir Edward Grey’s speech and the situation in Persia clearly demonstrate that the nations of the earth can only live as freeman with increased armaments, or they must die as slaves with decreased armaments, and when a nation has no armaments at all, as in the case of the Armenians, it will be exterminated like rats and vermin.

Therefore the call in the world to-day is for increased armaments, and the imperative need of the nations is man-slaying machinery.”

From THE PEACE PROBLEM
(pages 105-106)

“But there is another fact which should not be lost sight of. At the present day, with all the boasted twentieth-century civilization, the conviction must force itself on all thinking minds that there exists now in what are called the enlightened countries of the world a species of slavery that had never existed in the world before. The Hindus are the voluntary slaves of the Brahmans, but the nations of the powerful countries of Europe have now become the voluntary slaves of the gun-makers, and the financiers, the patrons of the gun-makers.

Under such happy circumstances it is a thousand pities that modern science cannot discover a method by which the human stomach could be converted into a receptacle for consuming cartridges instead of bread. What fine times for money-making it would be if all the bakeries of the world could be converted into gun-factories.

But I wonder if the nations of the countries that are now piling up armaments have realized that all the armour-plate works and all the cannon, rifle and cartridge making works in their countries are in reality schools for the cultivation of the spirit of murder and plunder, and what can be more dangerous to a country or a nation that large organized schools for murder and plunder culture. Thousands upon thousands, nay, hundreds of thousands, of workmen in all these countries are employed for the purpose of manufacturing man-slaying machinery—each of those workmen working to manufacture large-size burglars’ tools for the successful robbery of another nation or another country. All working for the successful operation of murder and plunder. Shall not these spirits of evil, so strenuously created, generate other spirits of evil?”

From THE PEACE PROBLEM
(pages 109-110)

“Here is the wheel within the wheel, England encouraging Russian activities in order to thwart German activities, and Russia depending on Germany for her supply of man-slaying machinery.”

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The following quotes from From the Book of ONE THOUSAND TALES are REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION

From From the Book of ONE THOUSAND TALES
(page ix, Ara Ghazarians writes)

“Hakob Karapents, one of the most prolific twentieth century Diaspora Armenian writers, once wrote: ‘Everybody’s biography has two levels, inner and outer. The outer level is an easy one. It deals with such questions as: What has he done? Where has he gone? With whom has he met? One can write an entire book about it, and some do exactly that. The difficult part is the inner biography of a person which deals with one’s journey through eternity. I am the traveler of that world whose cartography is impossible.’

The paragraphs venture to weave in brief the ‘outer’ level of Diana Agabeg Apcar’s biography in an attempt to introduce her to those unfamiliar with this remarkable Armenian woman, her life and legacy as a wife and mother, businesswoman, writer, correspondent, diplomat, and activist-humanitarian.”

From From the Book of ONE THOUSAND TALES
(page 17, The Lone Crusader)

“’Because the angels are tender hearted’ explained the Minstrel. ‘We humans take the lamb from its mother, kill it, cook it and eat it. The angels never do that. And great conquerors since the world began have always carried immeasurable misery into the countries they have conquered. So that is why the angels wept over Timour’s (a great Turkish hero) conquests.’”

From From the Book of ONE THOUSAND TALES
(page 29, The Lone Crusader)

“Also it is given to us to think that in this world we have no continuing place, that we are, all mankind, nothing else but a passing show; we come and we go. We are like the bubbles of a fountain, every minute, every instant bubbles appear on the surface of the water, they disappear and more bubbles appear on the surface of the water, they disappear and more bubbles take their place.
But the spirit lives and we can transmit our spirit to our race from generation to generation. If we keep our spirit as a nation, noble and valiant, that nobleness and valor of spirit will continue to live in our race through the centuries.
Time makes changes and there may come our time when our ancient land will be freed from the yoke of the alien oppressor. But we cannot be freed unless we keep the spirit of the nation noble and valiant.
As a nation we are beggared of independence, but can abound in good works and continue morally rich.
Independence is a very precious thing, but nobleness and valor of spirit are more precious even.”

From From the Book of ONE THOUSAND TALES
(pages 31-32, The Purloined Wheat)

“All those most excellent fruits of Armenia: grapes of the finest flavor, peaches, apricots, melons, etc., did not grow in this province on account of its altitude, but this province grew fine wheat in abundance: wheat which is ground into flour and made into bread.

In seasons of dearth and scarcity bread has a high value, for the stomach must be fed. The unfed stomach exercises such an overwhelming influence over all the other parts which compose and make up the human beings, that the senses are dulled into ineptitude; the unfed stomach asserts itself so poignantly that the strong man, the great man, the wise man are vanquished by its pangs. Therefore the grain waiving in the fields is mightier than the mightiest potentate on earth. …

… In viewing the history of any country, it is first necessary to consider the geographical position of that country on the earth’s surface. Now Armenia has a geographical position that is like unto a death trap. She lies at the crossroads, a bridge country. From the East and from the West, from the North and from the South, she is encompassed and open to invasion, thus by reason of her geographical position, Armenia has been the prey and the victim of successive Imperialisms, counted by thousands (of) years, the story of ruthless invasion has been enacted in Armenia oftener than in any other country on earth.”

From From the Book of ONE THOUSAND TALES
(page 48, Antharam’s Sacrafice)

“Our knowledge and experience of the world suggest to us that two thirds of its written history are, as likely as not to be a lie. The historian of one country draws a different picture and gives a different version of the same historical event, from the picture and version drawn and given by the historians of another country. So it may be in the future, some more of what are called ‘discoveries’ will be fathomed, and another batch of scholars will arise whose findings with upset the conclusions at present accepted.”

From From the Book of ONE THOUSAND TALES
(page 52, Antharam’s Sacrifice)

“Bulgaria regained her independence without Bulgarians having contributed to the victories of the war; her geographical position permitted emancipation. The geographical position of Armenia ran counter to the interests of the western and central European powers. They could not tolerate the aggrandizement of Russian domination in territory that was a high road to Constantinople, and Russia did not desire a free Armenia, so Armenia was left to swelter in the newly roused Turkish ire.

‘The Great Powers have resolved that for the peace of Europe, the Ottoman Empire must stand.’ Such was the proclamation. The resolve however was unhesitatingly broken whenever self-interested demanded a slice of the Ottoman Empire.”

From From the Book of ONE THOUSAND TALES
(pages 76-77, The Last Battle of Furfur Kahr)

“In 1878 the streets of London were illuminated in commemoration of the great victory of the Treaty of Berlin, and ‘peace with honor’ were proclaimed. The Armenians continued to have the (so-called) ‘peace’ from that time onward. They had been caught in the crosscurrents of rival Imperialisms. Their wrongs and sufferings had been given prominence at the Berlin Congress. The farce had been proceeded with for very shame of the substantial victories on the Russian side, won by men of their own race in the Russo-Turkish war. But no provision for redress of their wrongs and sufferings, or security against further outrages was entered into that treaty. The sixty-first article of the Treaty of Berlin supposedly to sponsor their cause, remained an optical illusion on paper, which served no other purpose except to create new resentments in the heat of the Turkish oppressor.”

From From the Book of ONE THOUSAND TALES
(pages 92-93, The Prisoner of Sakhalin)

“The Great War of Europe broke out in July 1914. Like a lava flood, it spread and engulfed many nations and peoples, but Armenians paid the heaviest toll of all, and rendered the mightiest service of all when the war was in progress, and were apportioned the bitterest aftermath of all when the war was over. They were provided with new massacres and new vagabondage by those European powers, whom they had served.

It is known that the reason why Germany surrendered in November 1918 was, not because she was militarily defeated but because she had no more oil to carry on war operations. It was General Von Ludendorf, in his memoirs, has stressed Germany’s imperative need for oil.

It was Germany’s purpose to obtain control of the Baku oil, but after the breakdown of Russia, the Armenian Irregulars, having supplied themselves with arms and ammunition from the Russian military store, held the Caucasus front for nine months, from January to September 1918.

That ragged, hungry army fought with superhuman strength and under indescribable hardships and prevented the Turks and Germans from obtaining control the Baku oil.

The war ended in November 1918 because Germany did not have oil to continue war operations. It might have continued for another year if Germany had gained control of the Baku oil.

In that case it was the Armenians who called a halt to the war. It was they who finished it.”

From From the Book of ONE THOUSAND TALES
(pages 94-95, Thagougie of Kharberd)

“’The most hideous and most awful crime in the annals of the human race, the murder in cold blood and at one given time, of one million and a half defenseless human beings, became possible in year of our Lord 1915.

This crime, perpetrated by the Turkish government and the Turkish populace on the Armenians, unparalleled in the history of mankind for its magnitude, committed against a people whose country had been invaded and usurped by their murderers, had a background. And this background was the policies pursued by great European powers in their political intercourse with the Turks and the material and moral aid given by them to the Turks.

The whole series of Turkish governments, organized atrocities, perpetrated on defenseless Armenians, beginning from 1894/95/96, culminating in 1915, and still further carried on till 1922, were made possible by the support of this background.”

From From the Book of ONE THOUSAND TALES
(pages 95-96, Thagougie of Kharberd)

“The losses of her two children were the bitterest grieves of her life. Since these two children were gone, Thagouhie was no more the happy woman she had been during the first years of her marriage.
Life’s joys are brief.

But religion is the sheet anchor of that inner self which is call the Spirit. Thagouhie was a religious woman, and when she knelt in her Church and prayed and the silent tears fell for the children taken away, she went home from the Church with healing in her heart.

Her…family kept her working from earliest morn till night. If any of her women friends and neighbors were sick, or if any of their children were taken ill, Thagouhie was ready with a helping hand. Nor did she forget the poor and friendless.”

From From the Book of ONE THOUSAND TALES
(pages 97-98, Thagougie of Kharberd)

“At another time he had still more astonished another American missionary by clinching an argument. The said missionary was given to talking about the ‘needed reforms’ in the Armenian Church.

‘Patouveli’ (Reverend sir) said Esai to him one day, ‘I want to ask you a question. You have live among us for several years. You know the conditions under which we live, a subjugated people; than which there is no greater handicap for any people even under a civilized government, but here we are living under a brutal government, harassed by their officials, suffering in every interest of our daily life, subjected to all manner of indignities, deprived of the elementary rights of man until it can be said that we are not the owners of our own bodies. Now Patouveli, suppose your Protestant Americans were in our position, living under the selfsame conditions as ourselves, what would become of your Protestant Americans, think you, in the course of fifty years?’
‘In fifty years’ admitted the missionary, ‘if they were in the position of the Armenians, they would become Turks.’

‘So if fifty years your Protestant Americans would have become Turks? You admit that!’ exulted Esai. ‘Six hundred years, Patouveli, and through the grace of our Church we have remained Armenians and Christians. Therefore our Church is not in need of reforms. Our Church’ added Esai proudly ‘is a blessed national institution. She is the Ark in which our nationality and moral status have been preserved through the centuries in which we have been subjected to alien despotism.’

After that the good missionary had not talked any more of the ‘needed reforms’ in the Armenian Church.”

From From the Book of ONE THOUSAND TALES
(page 99, Thagougie of Kharberd)

“According to good old custom, War broke out in Europe. It was towards the end of July 1914. The combustibles had been piling up year after year and in 1914 they were all ready for the burning.

Since the Congress of Berlin in 1878, Germany had been striving to carve out a German Empire of the Ottoman Empire. Germany was conscious that the other ‘powers’ were watching the German enterprise under construction, and Germany feared that the great enterprise might be prevented from its successful completion by the opposing ‘powers,’ so Germany struck the match to the tinder.
Imperialism extends it frontiers by war.

Immediately the hostile attitude of the Turkish officials towards the Armenians became markedly aggressive. The Turks felt the opportunity had come of ridding their empire of the people whose country they had robbed. In a few months, the ‘Young Turks’ had joined Germany in the struggle.

…They (the Turks) forgot the ‘traditional friendship’ between themselves and Britain and France. They forgot the enormous services rendered in the past by Britain and France for the prevention of the swallowing up of the Ottoman Empire by Russia. They believed Germany was going to win and they believed they could utilize Germany in retrieving for themselves the lost glories of the Ottoman Empire. When the lost glories had been retrieved, Germany could be dismissed.”

From From the Book of ONE THOUSAND TALES
(page 101, Thagougie of Kharberd)

“The Young Turks were fighting two wars, one war was against their age-long benefactors, the British and French, the other was against the Armenians whose country they had robbed and whom they were now determined to wipe out of existence.
The Governor of all the provinces comprising the Turkish Empire had received the secret instructions of Talaat Pasha, Minister of the Interior, ordering them to exterminate the Armenians.”

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