GREEK HELSINKI MONITOR
GROUPEMENT POUR LES DROITS DES MINORITES (FRANCE)
HELSINKI COMMITTEE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA,
PRESS RELEASE
30/10/1997
TOPIC: CONDEMNATION OF THE BANNING OF ENTRY OF TWO SERBIAN
CLERGYMEN IN THE REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA
Skopje, Oct. 30,
1997. -The human rights NGOs Greek Helsinki Monitor, Helsinki Committee for Human Rights
in the Republic of Macedonia, and Groupement pour les Droits des Minorites (Minority
Rights Group - France) whose representatives participated in the international conference
on "Identity, State, Religion and Secularity in Europe after the Fall of the Berlin
Wall", Skopje, October 26 to 29, 1997, would like to express their strong disapproval
of the fact that two participants were prevented from entering Macedonia.
More specifically, Bishop Irinej Bulovic and Archdeacon Radovan Bigovic
were turned back at the Serbian-Macedonian border by the Macedonian authorities because
they were wearing the frock. Such decision, possibly related to the conflict between the
Serbian and the Macedonian Orthodox Churches, is an unacceptable act of intolerance. It is
reminiscent of the Greek authorities' multiple convictions of the Macedonian priest Father
Nikodimos Tsarknias for wearing the frock in Greece while the Macedonian Orthodox Church
is not recognized by the Greek Orthodox Church either.
Our organizations, which have constantly opposed the latter act until
the Greek state finally stopped prosecuting Father Tsarknias, call upon the Macedonian
authorities to stop practices that indicate that a secular state takes sides in an
interreligious conflict, especially when it sets an alarming precedent for the neighboring
states to (re)introduce similar measures against Macedonian clergymen.