Greek Volunteer Guard

The Greek Volunteer Guard (Serbian: Grčka Dobrovoljačka Garda) was a unit of Greek volunteers, that took part in the Bosnian War on the side of Bosnian Serbs. The Guard numbered around 100 men and was integrated into the RS Army. The Greek Volunteers allegedly participated in the Srebrenica Massacre (after the city fell, a Greek flag was hoisted on Ratko Mladić's insistence). In September, 1995, four of the unit's fighters were awarded the White Eagle medal of honour by Radovan Karadzic.

One of the members of the Greek Volunteer Guard, Kyriakos Katharios, in the Greek nationalist paper Eleftheri ora does not acknowledge their participation in the massacre. While acknowledging the erection of the Greek flag, he stated that the honors received from Mladić were not linked to the incident.

The issue was forgotten for years until the Greek deputy Andreas Andrianopoulos broached the subject in 2005 and the Minister of Justice Anastasios Papaligouras began an investigation, which is still underway..

In 2009 representatives of the GVG again denied allegations of involvement in the killings and sued writer Takis Michas who expressed them in the Greek print media. In a press release he instead argued that the small number of Greek volunteers were all stationed at Vlasenica and were not involved in any offensive operation, nor any of the battles of Srebenica.

The GVG had its own insignia: a white double-headed eagle on a black background a photograph of which can be found here.

References

• Takis Michas Greece's Balkan Closets
• Takis Michas "Unholy Alliance: Greece and Milosevic's Serbia" (Texas A & M University, 2002).
• Kyriakos Katharios Πολεμώντας στην Βοσνία