Eurasia Press & News
The case of a Macedonian mental patient who says he is a Serb ‘working for Slav-Hellenic friendship’ has sparked a propaganda war between Macedonia and Greece, reaching even diplomats and European Union officials in Brussels.
Vasko Gligorov was put in a mental hospital by his family last month for observation and care. The man, a Macedonia-born Skopje resident, also presents himself as a Serbian national called Gligorijevic and in his blog says he is one of the founders of an organisation called “Slavic–Hellenic Association” that strives for close ties between Serbia and Greece. He publicly denies the existence of Macedonians, saying “they are all Serbs.”
After his hospitalisation, Greek activists contacted various media, including Balkan Insight, to protest against what they said was “fascism” by Macedonian authorities, saying that “the regime of PM Gruevski put Gligorov in a mental hospital simply for expressing pro-Greek sentiments in his blog.”
“Gligorijevic is forcefully detained by the authorities against his will,” Stavros Vitali, the leader of the group told local A1 TV on Tuesday. “We are bringing with us Greece’s most famous psychiatrist, Cleantis Grivas, to personally determine if Gligorijevic is alright.”
Vitali said that the group coming to Skopje were members of the Greek party “Political Renaissance” but “their mission is strictly humanitarian”.
A group of 30 people arrived in Skopje on Wednesday to check on his condition, saying they knew Gligorov from the net. After talking with the director of Bardovci hospital, Dr Pavlina Vaskova, they slowly returned to the bus.
“It is forbidden by law for any doctor who is not registered in Macedonia to practice medicine” Pavlina Vaskova, the director of Bardovci mental hospital, told local A1 TV, adding that the hospital had not received any announcement or request for a visit and patients cannot be visited ad hoc by any organization or group without a permit.
Gligorov’s family has appeared distressed by the furore, his mother saying repeatedly her son truly had mental problems.
“My son was taken to hospital with police assistance because he is ill and needed treatment, ” Gligorov’s mother told local Nova Makedonija daily at the beginning of the month. “I hear for the first time that someone in Greece claims he is being arrested due to his pro Greek stance. He might have written something on the internet to prevent his treatment, I do not know.”
Neither hospital authorities nor Gligorov’s parents have given out any official information on his condtion. The local Kanal 5 TV cited unnamed sources as saying he was 32 years old and diagnosed as a schizophrenic, and had been also hospitalised in the past.
A series of letters calling for the “liberation” of the Skopje blogger have reportedly been sent to EU diplomats and European Parliament members. Macedonia’s A1 TV said a Greek MP from the opposition PASOK party had also raised Gligorov’s case in the parliament in Athens as part of a discussion on the 18-year Athens-Skopje row over the name ‘Macedonia’.
