The FYROM police harass Orthodox nuns from Greece

SOC Info-Service

A group of Greek Orthodox nuns fro the monastery of the Most Holy Theotokos Eleusa near Patra led by Abbess Makrina was harassed upon entry and exit from the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia by the local border service, reported the press service of the Archdiocese of Ochrid.

Upon entering FYR Macedonia from Albania on September 6 at the border crossing Pogradec, members of the Skoplje Ministry of Internal Affairs (state police) detained the Greek nuns for several hours, finally allowing them to enter the country with strong orders that they are only allowed to travel directly to the border crossing with Greece, and that they must not linger anywhere along the way.

Ignoring this order, which is contrary to all standards on freedom of movement and human rights in today’s Europe, the Greek nuns nevertheless visited the monastery of the Archdiocese of Ochrid in Nizhepolye, where they expressed their solidarity and empathy with the imprisoned Archbishop Jovan and his monks. Upon entering the monastery the nuns presented a great gift by stopping in front of the photograph of the imprisoned Archbishop and kissing it as if it were icon, thus expressing their deep respect for this modern confessor of Christianity in twenty-first century Europe.

When the nuns arrived on the border crossing with Greece on the same day at about 10:00 p.m. members of the Ministry of Internal Affairs once again subjected them to interrogation and harassment, demanding to know why they were late, where they had been and with whom they had spoken. The members of the police again reiterated that there is a ban on the entrance of Orthodox clergy into the FYR of Macedonia and that they will no longer be allowed to travel in the FYR of Macedonia.

This most recent example of harassment of Orthodox nuns from Greece, who are also citizens of the European Union, clearly shows that in their determined intent to suffocate freedom of life and work for the Orthodox Church on the territory of FYR Macedonia, the Skoplje government does not hesitate to violate basic principles in effect on the territory of the European Union, directly bringing into question the future integration of FYR Macedonia into the family of European peoples.