Disappearance of Vasko Gligorijevic in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM)
Tymphaios
July 16, 2009
Disappearance of civil rights activist Vasko Gligorijevic in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM).
The FYROMacedonian civil rights activist Vasko Gligorijevic (or Vasco, previously known by his Bulgarian name Vasil Gligorov), a strong criticiser of FYROMacedonian president Nikola Gruevski, disappeared on the 4th of July. Before his disappearance he had sent an email to a trusted individual saying:
"I may be arrested again. I know that from my sources. Please check me on this email in the next 12 hours. Do not alert nobody for now, please, it is not certain. But do check me every 12 hours for few days. If repeatedly do not answer in next hours or days, I´m dead, I´m gone."
Mt Gligorijevic had been arrested by police previously at two in the morning on 28 January 2009. On that occasion he had been eventually taken to the psychiatric clinic Bardovci (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ME5bpffoByY). He had been drugged and kept tied up for three days. While in the psychiatric clinic, he was kept effectively incommunicado, he was essentially stripped of his legal rights and had no access to a lawyer or to a doctor of his own choice. The director of the Clinic refused a meeting with a Greek doctor, journalists and supporters, claiming that she did not know if this patient was in her hospital. Mr Gligorijevic remained in the clinic until discussions in the European Parliament and intervention of human rights groups resulted in his release a month hence.
Vasko Gligorijevic was a member of the Slavic Philhellenic network and had criticised the current government in FYROM. Mr Gligorijevic had sought to publicise and ridicule a FYROM law about "private research on matters of national identity regarding the genesis and ethnic anthropology of peoples historically present in FYROM is forbidden by the 1996 Law for scientific-exploring activity ("zakon za naučno-istražuvačkata dejnost"), article 16, which reads: "The approval (for performing public scientific work-V. G. ) can be given for all areas designated as a public interest in scientific-exploring activity, with the exception of scientific research in the area of historical and cultural identity of the Macedonian people and the nationalities which live in the Republic of Macedonia, defense and security.""
About a year ago, Mr Gligorijevic, then a history student at the University of Skopje, had filed an Averment pro se with the FYROM judiciary in which he was invtiting the FYROM government on a legal challenge regarding the stated facts. Some of these facts were:
"XIX) By stating the facts in the previous chapter, to the uttermost of my knowledge, the truth, nothing more, nothing less, without guilty mind or in dissimulation, 1. I, Vasil Gligorov, as an act of free will,[…] do affirm these truths, remaining ready to prove them in case of any challenge, being assured in them as a result of a critical, open-minded study of the matters exposed, that: 2. Macedonians were and are Hellenes, from their genesis in antiquity to the present day.[…] The existence of these Pseudomacedonians was first brought by their "recognition", in spite of historical and ethnologic realities, by the acts of the 53 illegitimate AVNOJ organization. Many people, primarily conscious Bulgarians and also Serbs and others, suffered by the post-WW II regime in Yugoslavia because of their rejection of the forced "Macedonisation". The wrongful Yugoslav intrusion into the 1946-1949 Civil War in Greece is a crime, the motive of which was in accordance with the Pseudomacedonian ideology of expropriation of the real Macedonia. 5. The usurpation of Hellenic heritage and expansionist agenda by the many Pseudomacedonians, including segments of their state, where the fake doctrine of "Macedonism" is an official creed, is not only one of the main generators of crisis in the Balkans, but it is a self-injury of the Slavic Pseudomacedonians to their true, traditional heritages: Bulgarian and Serbian. I, Vasil Gligorov, thereby, affirm that the victory of truth and reason over the forces of Bolshevik Pseudomacedonism will benefit Slavs of FYROM, Slavs in general, Greeks and all other parties involved in these unfortunate circumstances."
The FYROM government never challenged Mr Gligorijevic in court. Nevertheless after his release from the Bardovci Clinic he stopped writing original essays and restricted himself to reporting news and the political analysis of newspapers and tv stations of FYROM as well as translating into FYROMacedonian international criticism of the Gruevski policies.
Vasko Vassilje Gligorijevic sought through the creation of the Slavic Philhellenic Network to reconcile the two sides in the name argument and to bring constructive insight into the debate. In his own words the motives were to work "against Anti-Hellenism and Anti-Slavism produced by the current regime in Skoplje". On the 31st of May Vasko Gligorijevic surprisingly announced that the Slav Philhellenic Network would cease.
Below is an excerpt from one of Vasko Gligorijevic´s essays from the website of the Slavic Philhellenic Network (http://vardaraxios.wordpress.com):
"The problems arose with the way in which the totalitarian VMRO-DPMNE government energized the masses among which the national confusion brought by media exposure of contradictory data grew. Firstly, it reactivated the conflict with Greece by multitude of irredentist moves. Secondly, within FYROM it carried massive policy of introduction of Ancient Macedonian symbols (names of institutions, statues) after the expected and natural Greek negative reaction. The population, feeling threatened, mistook the attitude of aggressive "Macedonization" sponsored by the government as "defiance" against a hostile state (the hostility of which was precisely provoked by FYROM´s initial provocations). Capitalizing on the fact that the vast majority of the general population does not have neither a capability nor a will for sustained scientific research regarding ethnology, history and linguistics, the government managed to capture attention of the whole body of citizens. One can presume that the sheer authority the organized government yields in a conformist society where libertarian principles of critical thinking and individual self-reliance regarding the process of opinion-forming are practically absent is sufficient to impose an entirely absurd idea of identity. In FYROM it is unchallenged by organized bodies from which a better knowledge of the true state of affairs might be expected, including universities, institutes, museums etc. With the sole exception of Internet, all electronic and printed media are participants in government´s monopoly over identity dogmas. Only few individual voices of distaste and revolt against the lies have insofar voiced their concerns (Denko Maleski, Petar Hr. Ilievski) but they got a hostile, unsympathetic public response.
While the prospect of organized challenge of the pro-governmental stances regarding the identity issues is something expected given the conventional political dynamics within pluralist societies, this is not quite a case. Nikola Gruevski achieved dominance of his party by calling premature elections in 2008 at the time of peak in the approval rating of his first mandate caused by populist measures. That gave him an unprecedented might against which FYROM has no institutionalized mechanisms of control. Furthermore, in a state of affairs whereby the larger part of the Slavs have abandoned their Bulgarian and Serbian culture in belief that they represent a separate ancient ethnicity in a category of its own, creators of the policy of the opposition (led by the leftist SDSM party) must carefully measure their words of opposition to the lavish Pseudomacedonian rhetorics, since they may be branded as "traitors" given the appropriate circumstances. Consequently, in such occasion they would find themselves ostracized from the ongoing debate.
This leads to the conclusion that the solution to the Pseudomacedonian hysteria which totally dominates public life in FYROM is not only confined to the change in the internal situation which may come as a result of economic collapse or a full-scale civil war, but also from strong pressure from outside which would enable FYROM to conform itself to reality and to rational way of conducting cultural policy. The reign of VMRO-DPMNE, characterized by collectivist, group-centered policies, extensive role of the police in society, new legislature sponsoring religious education, subsidizing biological procreation with wealth redistribution, enforcing ethics of service to the "common good", emphasizing the feral, folklorist and medieval aspects of local national culture in opposition to modern as well as apolitical high culture, is the greatest political catastrophe FYROM faces in early 21st century. A hope remains that the Slavs of FYROM will reject the artificial and overbearing attempts to instill a connection with chronologically and ethnically distant Greek kingdom as well as to make history the most important aspect of their everyday lives. Only through enduring action from within and from abroad the local state-worshiping, centrally-planned tribal way of life may be liquidated and replaced with a political system based on freedom, a change which will forever put the era of Pseudomacedonism behind, as a doomed ideology based on lies."
The FYROMacedonian civil rights activist Vasko Gligorijevic (or Vasco, previously known by his Bulgarian name Vasil Gligorov), a strong criticiser of FYROMacedonian president Nikola Gruevski, disappeared on the 4th of July. Before his disappearance he had sent an email to a trusted individual saying:
"I may be arrested again. I know that from my sources. Please check me on this email in the next 12 hours. Do not alert nobody for now, please, it is not certain. But do check me every 12 hours for few days. If repeatedly do not answer in next hours or days, I´m dead, I´m gone."
Mt Gligorijevic had been arrested by police previously at two in the morning on 28 January 2009. On that occasion he had been eventually taken to the psychiatric clinic Bardovci (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ME5bpffoByY). He had been drugged and kept tied up for three days. While in the psychiatric clinic, he was kept effectively incommunicado, he was essentially stripped of his legal rights and had no access to a lawyer or to a doctor of his own choice. The director of the Clinic refused a meeting with a Greek doctor, journalists and supporters, claiming that she did not know if this patient was in her hospital. Mr Gligorijevic remained in the clinic until discussions in the European Parliament and intervention of human rights groups resulted in his release a month hence.
Vasko Gligorijevic was a member of the Slavic Philhellenic network and had criticised the current government in FYROM. Mr Gligorijevic had sought to publicise and ridicule a FYROM law about "private research on matters of national identity regarding the genesis and ethnic anthropology of peoples historically present in FYROM is forbidden by the 1996 Law for scientific-exploring activity ("zakon za naučno-istražuvačkata dejnost"), article 16, which reads: "The approval (for performing public scientific work-V. G. ) can be given for all areas designated as a public interest in scientific-exploring activity, with the exception of scientific research in the area of historical and cultural identity of the Macedonian people and the nationalities which live in the Republic of Macedonia, defense and security.""
About a year ago, Mr Gligorijevic, then a history student at the University of Skopje, had filed an Averment pro se with the FYROM judiciary in which he was invtiting the FYROM government on a legal challenge regarding the stated facts. Some of these facts were:
"XIX) By stating the facts in the previous chapter, to the uttermost of my knowledge, the truth, nothing more, nothing less, without guilty mind or in dissimulation, 1. I, Vasil Gligorov, as an act of free will,[…] do affirm these truths, remaining ready to prove them in case of any challenge, being assured in them as a result of a critical, open-minded study of the matters exposed, that: 2. Macedonians were and are Hellenes, from their genesis in antiquity to the present day.[…] The existence of these Pseudomacedonians was first brought by their "recognition", in spite of historical and ethnologic realities, by the acts of the 53 illegitimate AVNOJ organization. Many people, primarily conscious Bulgarians and also Serbs and others, suffered by the post-WW II regime in Yugoslavia because of their rejection of the forced "Macedonisation". The wrongful Yugoslav intrusion into the 1946-1949 Civil War in Greece is a crime, the motive of which was in accordance with the Pseudomacedonian ideology of expropriation of the real Macedonia. 5. The usurpation of Hellenic heritage and expansionist agenda by the many Pseudomacedonians, including segments of their state, where the fake doctrine of "Macedonism" is an official creed, is not only one of the main generators of crisis in the Balkans, but it is a self-injury of the Slavic Pseudomacedonians to their true, traditional heritages: Bulgarian and Serbian. I, Vasil Gligorov, thereby, affirm that the victory of truth and reason over the forces of Bolshevik Pseudomacedonism will benefit Slavs of FYROM, Slavs in general, Greeks and all other parties involved in these unfortunate circumstances."
The FYROM government never challenged Mr Gligorijevic in court. Nevertheless after his release from the Bardovci Clinic he stopped writing original essays and restricted himself to reporting news and the political analysis of newspapers and tv stations of FYROM as well as translating into FYROMacedonian international criticism of the Gruevski policies.
Vasko Vassilje Gligorijevic sought through the creation of the Slavic Philhellenic Network to reconcile the two sides in the name argument and to bring constructive insight into the debate. In his own words the motives were to work "against Anti-Hellenism and Anti-Slavism produced by the current regime in Skoplje". On the 31st of May Vasko Gligorijevic surprisingly announced that the Slav Philhellenic Network would cease.
Below is an excerpt from one of Vasko Gligorijevic´s essays from the website of the Slavic Philhellenic Network (http://vardaraxios.wordpress.com):
"The problems arose with the way in which the totalitarian VMRO-DPMNE government energized the masses among which the national confusion brought by media exposure of contradictory data grew. Firstly, it reactivated the conflict with Greece by multitude of irredentist moves. Secondly, within FYROM it carried massive policy of introduction of Ancient Macedonian symbols (names of institutions, statues) after the expected and natural Greek negative reaction. The population, feeling threatened, mistook the attitude of aggressive "Macedonization" sponsored by the government as "defiance" against a hostile state (the hostility of which was precisely provoked by FYROM´s initial provocations). Capitalizing on the fact that the vast majority of the general population does not have neither a capability nor a will for sustained scientific research regarding ethnology, history and linguistics, the government managed to capture attention of the whole body of citizens. One can presume that the sheer authority the organized government yields in a conformist society where libertarian principles of critical thinking and individual self-reliance regarding the process of opinion-forming are practically absent is sufficient to impose an entirely absurd idea of identity. In FYROM it is unchallenged by organized bodies from which a better knowledge of the true state of affairs might be expected, including universities, institutes, museums etc. With the sole exception of Internet, all electronic and printed media are participants in government´s monopoly over identity dogmas. Only few individual voices of distaste and revolt against the lies have insofar voiced their concerns (Denko Maleski, Petar Hr. Ilievski) but they got a hostile, unsympathetic public response.
While the prospect of organized challenge of the pro-governmental stances regarding the identity issues is something expected given the conventional political dynamics within pluralist societies, this is not quite a case. Nikola Gruevski achieved dominance of his party by calling premature elections in 2008 at the time of peak in the approval rating of his first mandate caused by populist measures. That gave him an unprecedented might against which FYROM has no institutionalized mechanisms of control. Furthermore, in a state of affairs whereby the larger part of the Slavs have abandoned their Bulgarian and Serbian culture in belief that they represent a separate ancient ethnicity in a category of its own, creators of the policy of the opposition (led by the leftist SDSM party) must carefully measure their words of opposition to the lavish Pseudomacedonian rhetorics, since they may be branded as "traitors" given the appropriate circumstances. Consequently, in such occasion they would find themselves ostracized from the ongoing debate.
This leads to the conclusion that the solution to the Pseudomacedonian hysteria which totally dominates public life in FYROM is not only confined to the change in the internal situation which may come as a result of economic collapse or a full-scale civil war, but also from strong pressure from outside which would enable FYROM to conform itself to reality and to rational way of conducting cultural policy. The reign of VMRO-DPMNE, characterized by collectivist, group-centered policies, extensive role of the police in society, new legislature sponsoring religious education, subsidizing biological procreation with wealth redistribution, enforcing ethics of service to the "common good", emphasizing the feral, folklorist and medieval aspects of local national culture in opposition to modern as well as apolitical high culture, is the greatest political catastrophe FYROM faces in early 21st century. A hope remains that the Slavs of FYROM will reject the artificial and overbearing attempts to instill a connection with chronologically and ethnically distant Greek kingdom as well as to make history the most important aspect of their everyday lives. Only through enduring action from within and from abroad the local state-worshiping, centrally-planned tribal way of life may be liquidated and replaced with a political system based on freedom, a change which will forever put the era of Pseudomacedonism behind, as a doomed ideology based on lies."
Print
Email
