AHEPA Does Not Care About its Adoption Victims!

Adoptees are the key to AHEPA’s redemption, not an image-control PR campaign.

by Leonidas V. Georgiou

AHEPA hurt thousands of Greek infants in the 1950s by selling them in the American black market.  AHEPA used its political influence to evade legal scrutiny.  Many infants were put in abusive homes that AHEPA failed to vet.  Some couples were previously found unfit to adopt, but AHEPA’s peddlers sold unfortunate Greek children to them and never followed up to ensure their safety and welfare.

AHEPA robbed most of these children of their Greek ethnic identity and their Orthodox faith by selling them to non-Greek and non-Orthodox families.  Portraying themselves as promoters of Greek heritage, AHEPA’s masonic leaders deprived the Greek orphans their basic human right to be raised in the ethnicity and faith they were born in.  That human right was already enshrined in Orthodox Church doctrine.  It is now internationally recognized by the United Nations Convention for the Rights of the Child.

Seven decades after AHEPA committed its atrocities, the brutal facts are well-known to all.  Professor Gonda Van Steen published her shocking findings in 2019, a full five years ago.  That’s ample time even for AHEPA’s slow readers to catch up on a damning indictment against AHEPA.  Her book is now available both in English and in Greek.

Last May, Helleniscope conducted its own investigation and published a summary of its findings.  See https://www.helleniscope.com/2024/05/14/will-ahepa-finally-embrace-its-greek-orphan-victims/

AHEPA’s culpability is no longer in doubt.  Yet AHEPA’s masonic leaders pretend to be in a state of denial.  They “know nothing, nothing!”  Tsivicos’ gatekeepers tell journalists he cannot be bothered because he “knows nothing” about AHEPA’s adoptions.  They argue he was not there when the abuses occurred, so please don’t bother him.  AHEPA’s leaders cannot be distracted from globe-trotting visitations and banquets that make the Turks wet their pants in fear.  The adoptees are merely a nuisance to them!

1. AHEPA violates its mission to promote Greek heritage.

Even if AHEPA was indeed as innocent as the “know-nothings” claim it to be, AHEPA’s mission as a heritage organization obligates it to promote and defend Hellenism.  AHEPA owes a duty to all Greek Americans, our whole family, including our adoptees, regardless if AHEPA was involved in their injury.

The adoptees are not miserable children with dirty faces that no one wants to deal with.  They are Greek Americans.  They are our brothers, our sisters, our uncles and aunts.  They are our community!  They are us!  Why does our leading grassroots organization pretend they do not exist?  Why does it hold such disdain toward them?

Thousands of adoptees seek to restore their basic human right, their Greek citizenship.  That is a human right they were robbed of at their adoption.  That is a human right guaranteed by Greek laws, but bureaucratic obstacles stand in their way.  They need help, and our leading heritage organization, AHEPA, just does not give a damn about them!

Clearly, AHEPA also does not give a damn about its mission.  How can it promote our community’s Greek heritage if it does not care about our fellow Greeks’ uphill battle to restore their Greek citizenship?

2. AHEPA violates its obligation to its victims.

But AHEPA is not just an innocent bystander.  It owes a special duty to adoptees because it created their problem in the first place.

AHEPA breaches that duty when it covers up the facts and prevents adoptees from learning the truth about their past.  AHEPA refuses to help them regain the Greek citizenship that it itself robbed them of when it sold them to non-Greek and non-Orthodox adoptive parents.  The least that AHEPA must do is help them restore their God-given ethnic identity.

3. AHEPA’s cover-up of its wrongdoing.

Ever since AHEPA’s adoptions scandal erupted in 1959, the organization has gone into a PR spin that never stopped.  With the help of Babis Marketos at The National Herald, AHEPA went into a damage control frenzy.  It spent all its energy restoring its public image.  Even when the atrocities became public, AHEPA did not concern itself with the children’s welfare.  It did not follow up with adoptive families to ensure the children were safe.  Had AHEPA done so, it would discover that some children were not safe at all.  Their abuse at the hands of unfit adoptive parents who were never vetted continued.  It never stopped, even as AHEPA took care of its public image with a cover up.

For the next seven decades, AHEPA denied any fault.  It claimed its records were missing so it “knows nothing.”  In fact, we now know that AHEPA actually has some pertinent documents related to adoptions.  A lot is missing, but a lot exists as well.  The information that does exist has always been within AHEPA’s possession, custody and control.  It is not trivial.  It pertains to adoptees who may need it to piece together their life story and pursue their legal rights.

What diligent efforts did AHEPA make to find pertinent documents before it announced to the world that none exist?  Our community needs to know what they did before they became “know nothings.”

4. AHEPA’s false public relations narrative.

AHEPA views the adoptees as a public relations nuisance that has nothing to do with AHEPA’s core values.  For its leaders, it’s an issue affecting AHEPA’s public image, to be addressed with clever and misleading messaging that blames everyone except AHEPA for the adoptees’ tragic lives.

The adoptees’ effort to regain their lost Greek citizenship does not concern AHEPA.  We are told it is an issue best taken up by the broader Greek American community, everyone else other than AHEPA.  It’s a matter that concerns the Greek government, not AHEPA.  Do not count on AHEPA to intervene with its friends in high places.  AHEPA’s interactions with the Greek government are of a different nature.  They involve posing for photo ops and gaining a few pounds in banquets where fancy awards are given to each other.  The adoptees are a thorn on their side.  Blame everyone, but not AHEPA!

That deceptive narrative that deflects attention away from AHEPA is pushed by quite a few Ahepans who should know better.  Some are members of AHEPA’s supreme lodge.  Others are “academics” who downplay their AHEPA credentials to give the false narrative greater credence.  As they moderate seminars on the subject of [AHEPA’s] adoptions, these “intellectuals” point the finger at everyone but AHEPA.  They “shame the Hellenic government” and spread the blame.  They argue that “other Hellenic American organizations” have not done enough for the adoptees.

These moderators bluntly admit they must keep AHEPA’s name out of the conversation!  When it comes to AHEPA, they point out that its leaders “know nothing, nothing!”  They were not present back then, so it’s unfair to ask them questions.  Of course, they also have no records… they all disappeared!  (But did they all disappear?  Some pertinent records do exist and are still within AHEPA’s possession or control.  Perhaps it’s time for AHEPA to do a more diligent search!)

AHEPA’s PR campaign does not work anymore.  AHEPA’s culpability is proven beyond any doubt and the world knows it!

5. Commercial exploitation of adoptees.

AHEPA also promotes the theme that the adoptions benefited the adoptees.  Accordingly, the adoptees should be thankful that they were taken out of poverty and raised as proud Americans.  Hollywood-type videos at AHEPA-supported events display the adoptees’ happy reunions in Greece, with background music and happy endings.

Undoubtedly, out of 4,000 adoptions a number of adoptees were fortunate.  Thankfully, many had happy lives, but tragically too many others did not.  A large number of adoptees suffered at the hands of abusive adoptive parents that AHEPA never vetted.

Of course, AHEPA could not guarantee a successful outcome in every one of its adoptions.  Some families are indeed fated to face turbulence; that is a fact of life.  However, if adoptees were subjected to abuse that was foreseeable – if AHEPA had only done its due diligence investigation before handing over a child to an abusive couple – then AHEPA is as guilty as hell for their suffering.  No public relations guru can whitewash AHEPA’s crimes against our own people!

Too many adoptees had tragic lives and are still suffering.  You will not find them in show-and-tell presentations.  They wisely stay away from theatrics and from those who wish to capitalize on their tragedies.

Our community cannot allow the commercial exploitation of our adoptees as if they are commodities.  That was their fate as infants at the hands of AHEPA.  We cannot allow it to happen again under our watch!

6. Where does the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese stand?

In the 1950s, Archbishop Michael allowed AHEPA to print his name on its stationery as “honorary chairman” of its adoption program.  AHEPA used that stationery to communicate with orphanages, courts, U.S. agencies, and adoptive parents.

Unlike today’s hierarchs who are out of touch with the faithful, the late Archbishop Michael was a true spiritual leader who enjoyed the love and respect of his fellow hierarchs, his clergy, his flock, and all Greek and American government leaders.  His name on AHEPA’s letterhead gave the criminals a cover of legitimacy for their shady adoptions.  It conveyed the false message that the Church would protect the adoptees.

When news of wrongdoing reached Archbishop Michael, he protested to AHEPA and demanded that they stop abusing the human rights of Greece’s infants.  AHEPA’s perpetrators ignored his demands and continued their wrongdoing until they were arrested, several months after Archbishop Michael’s death.  His successor, Archbishop Iakovos, did not fall for the same mistake and kept AHEPA’s masonic leaders at arm’s length distance.

The use of Archbishop Michael’s name made the Church complicit in these wrongful adoptions, albeit as a passive participant that was outsmarted by AHEPA’s sophisticated criminals.  Nonetheless, for the small part it played in their injury, the Church owes the adoptees something, a special obligation to come to their aid.

The current archbishop’s obligation to aid the adoptees also stems from his own special relationship with AHEPA.  AHEPA’s president saved his job by persuading the ecumenical patriarch not to fire him.  He is, for all practical purposes, the spiritual father of AHEPA.  That role would be meaningless if Elpidophoros does not guide his penitents to repent and behave like Christians toward their own victims.

Finally, Elpidophoros’ obligation to do something stems from his paternal duty toward his entire flock.  That flock includes the adoptees whose ethnic identity and Orthodox faith were taken away from them when they were infants.  It was a violation of their human rights, guaranteed by Greek laws, by our church doctrine and by international conventions.  Doesn’t our Church have a duty to rescue its children?

Conclusion

The adoptees are the key to AHEPA’s redemption.  How AHEPA treats its victims will reveal the organization’s core values.  Abandonment of its victims is no longer an option.  The cover up must end if AHEPA is sincere about its proclaimed mission to promote our Greek heritage.

The commercial exploitation of adoptees must also end.  They are not commodities to be marketed by seminar moderators and professional promoters who make a career out of their tragedies.  Too many adoptees live turbulent lives as a result of their abusive treatment.  We owe them respect, compassion, privacy and professional care.  That goes to the core of our community’s Greek and Greek Orthodox values.  Does it go to the core of AHEPA’s values?  The world is watching.