Career
The reasons for his expulsion are disputed. He was found guilty by both the first-instance court and the ecclesiastical court of appeals, and he was then dismissed on March 11, 1992. According to Tsarknias and ethnic Macedonian sources, when he was a personal secretary to the Florina diocese"s bishop, he opposed what he saw as an attempt by the Bishop to eradicate ethnic Macedonian religious customs.
He has claimed that he has been harassed due to his ethnic Macedonian identity.
He has been the subject of numerous court cases, one of them over the attempted establishment of a Macedonian church in Aridaia. He was sentenced in May 2004 to three months in prison on the charges of "establishing and operating a church without authorization".
In 2009 he was sentenced to six months in prison for beating a 12-year-old in 2002. The boy allegedly vandalized Tsarknias" home with eggs and stones.
Tsarknias accepted that he "managed to grab the child by his arm", saying that he "didn"t hurt the child" and that the judge was harsh on him, stating "the main judge did not let us prove that I did not hurt the child because she wanted to sentence me as soon as she could" and that he was charged out of revenge for campaigning for the rights of the ethnic Macedonian minority in Greece (whose existence is officially denied by the Greek state).
Press Conference with Nikodim Tsarknias on YouTube (Macedonian)
News Report about Nikodim Tsarknias with the Greek Helsinki Committee on YouTube (Macedonian), (English).
