On September 27, a man passed away while hospitalised, following injuries sustained in a peculiar road accident that had occurred three days earlier.
The man was laid to rest—may God rest his soul, as the saying goes.
Last Saturday, October 7, colleague Despοina Psyllou, after speaking with Vassos Christou, the president of the 1974 War Prisoners’ Association, shed light on the story of the man who died after this strange accident.
The deceased was Michalis Kyriakou, 79 years old, a war veteran who had lost both legs and relied on an electric wheelchair for mobility. The wheelchair had multiple issues, but he could not afford a replacement. This led him, back in April, during a gathering of war prisoners attended by the President of the Republic, to request state assistance in replacing the faulty wheelchair (a photograph of their meeting exists).
The President promised he would address the matter. Indeed, the following day, when Christou, acting as the association’s president, contacted the presidential office to follow up, he was informed—according to his account—that the order had been given, and the request would be processed. “In fact,” Mr Christou told Phileleftheros, “they suggested holding an event to present him with the new wheelchair. Imagine that. I told them to forget it, that it was disgraceful.”
It seems they truly did forget. They even stopped returning his calls (again, according to Christou’s statements). On September 24, as Michalis Kyriakou was moving along a road in Agioi Trimithias, where he lived, his defective wheelchair broke down, leaving him stranded.
A fellow villager, perhaps thoughtlessly but with the best intentions, offered to help by tying the wheelchair to his vehicle with a strap to tow him back home. The result was tragic—Kyriakou fell, sustained serious injuries, and later died in the hospital where he was taken.
After the story was published and gained traction on social media, the matter took a new turn. Mr Christou clarified on television that the President had done his part and that the real problem lay with bureaucracy. Meanwhile, 13 days after the accident, the police began an investigation, arresting the villager who had tried to help his neighbour.
The driver may end up as the scapegoat, but the real blame lies elsewhere. Bureaucracy is a vague concept, much like the promises of the President. If the President wants his commitments to citizens to have meaning, he has a duty to create conditions where state services function without the kind of behaviour and red tape that can exhaust—and sometimes, even kill.