Ara Manoogian at Martuni or Bust!!! has posted a vibrant letter in response to the unresponsive Armenian world regarding the sexual slavery of Armenian children and women.

He quotes a reader as saying, “Trafficking is directly proportional to the level of corruption in Armenia. The fact that Diaspora organizations and churches have done little or nothing to stop trafficking and help trafficked victims is proof of their moral bankruptcy.”

Ara’s post describes well an experience that happened with me earlier this year. A couple of months ago I gave a letter to a member of the Armenian Apostolic Church of Greater Colorado and the Rocky Mountain Region. I was asking this non-profit organization to collect funds for Hetq.am to continue investigating and fighting human trafficking (actually they would only let us use their bank account). There was a donor from Georgia (a senior friend of mine who is not actually Armenian) who had promised to match the donations that would be collected. There were people who were willing to donate, but we needed a non-profit to send the initial donations to. Basically, the Church would only let us use their bank account and that would complete their involvement.

I soon received a call from the mentioned individual who basically said (I am not kidding) that “H” “E” “T” “Q” (the poor guy did not know that Hetq meant “Trace” in Armenian) might sound like a terrorist organization to the American government and that the latter fact might stop the activities of the Armenian Church. Aside from being complete B.S., what he said was ignorant and stupid, but this is generally, as Ara Manoogian writes, our behavior toward human trafficking. Sometimes I wonder I should have let the Church headquarters (it was the Prelacy, the Cilicia seat) know about their “regional leader’s” words, but I was really disappointed and did not want to do anything. Soon Hetq.am opened a PayPal account, and I just asked the people to send their donations online, although I don’t think it had the outcome we were hoping for and of course the donor did not get an estimated amount he could match.

Anyhow, read Ara’s letter and think what you would do if your sister or daughter were in the situation of these children and women. And…

p.s. 2007 Oxford dictionary’s definition of “Armenians.” People exclusively concerned about the official recognition of the Armenian genocide.

p.s.s. I think there is another reason Armenians don’t care about human trafficking – Child molestation and sex/rape with minors is not persecuted in Armenia and people either do it or have no idea that such a thing is happening.