The Alternate Minister of National Defence Dimitris Vitsas in an interview that he gave to reporter Dimos Verykios on Friday, June 10, 2016, at Alpha 989 radio station stressed, among other things, the following:
About the new assessment system of conscript soldiers:
I have already signed the ministerial decision on the assessment system and the relevant procedure of credit allocation and it is expected to be signed by the Minister of National Defence too. The system has two measures of control: On the one hand, there will be more people engaged in the procedure of credit allocation which will be also posted online, so there will be transparency and everybody, before joining the Army will know where he will be assigned. On the other hand, this procedure will be controlled, not only by the political leaders of the Ministry of National Defence, but periodically by the competent Committee of the Parliament. Of course, many parents will not give up their efforts to find out other ways, but with the system that we will establish we create a sort of an obstacle. By establishing the electronic credit allocation system, we create a procedure which will take into consideration each soldier’s family background, financial and physical condition, as well as his place of origin, since they will be able to propose where they would like to be assigned. Thus, for example, if somebody’s both parents are unemployed and he needs to be assigned somewhere near his home, to be able to work, he is allocated an amount of credits. Health or other problems will be taken into consideration respectively. In the end, these conditions will provide him with a total amount of credits.
About Turkey:
Turkey faces many challenges at the moment and it should be dealt with in a calmness of mind. This is all I had to say. Some things cannot be said. Now, it is an issue whether and to what extent Turkey and its government realize that Hagia Sophia which it tries to turn it into something else, is a protected monument of global cultural heritage. The Ministry of National Defence should face this situation in a calmness of mind – and this is what we are trying to do – but with determination as well. And at the same time it should send a clear message to everybody that acting calmly and decisively does not mean that we are weak, on the contrary we are very strong.
