ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on a case study of an unknown and short-lived political review, Handes (Arena), published from August to December 1900 in Geneva as the organ of a proposed Armenian Socialist Party (ASP). The first Handes editorial stated that the goal of the new monthly was "to represent and speak for the Armenian landless peasant, craftsman, and worker, since the essence and direction of their economic life had induced the need for new studies and course of action". The Handes asserted that "The national liberation organizations constituted a reflexive reaction to a simplistic interpretation of class antagonism as ethnic oppression". The little that is known of the individuals behind the Handes attests to the dominant figure of Yervand Balian, who as editor of the journal, author of major articles and the ASP program, and the driving force of the proposed party, for all practical purposes constituted a one man operation.
