Attendance of the Alternate Minister of National Defence, Deputy Minister of National Defence, Chief of HNDGS and Chief of HAGS at the Celebratory Session of the Academy of Athens for the 190th Anniversary of the Hellenic Military Academy (Evelpidon)
The Alternate Minister of National Defence Panagiotis Rigas and the Deputy Minister Maria Kollia – Tsaroucha, accompanied by the Chief of HNDGS Admiral Evangelos Apostolakis and the Chief of HAGS Alkiviadis Stefanis, attended the Special Celebratory Session of the Academy of Athens in honour of the Hellenic Military Academy (Evelpidon), which celebrates the completion of 190 years since its establishment (1828-2018), on Friday night 19 October 2018, at the Main Building of the Academy of Athens.
The Alternate Minister mentioned the following in his address:
“Ladies and gentlemen,
It is a particular pleasure for me to be here with you today, at the celebratory session of the Academy of Athens, to honour the 190th anniversary since the establishment of the Hellenic Military Academy (Evelpidon), a Higher Education Military Institution identified in the conscience of the Greek society as the seed bed of the Nation’s “Fine Hopes”.
Hellenic Military Academy (Evelpidon) solidified the personal vision of the first Governor of Greece Ioannis Kapodistrias, who announced its establishment in June 1828, simultaneously naming the first five Cadets.
It was then, during the establishment of the New Greek State, that the country’s first military educational institution was founded, committed to fight for freedom after four hundred years of slavery.
All these years the Hellenic Military Academy (Evelpidon) followed the tumultuous course of the recently established Greek State and contributed, through the members of the Hellenic Army which it nurtured, to the survival of this state and the shape which it holds to this day.
The Hellenic Military Academy (Evelpidon) trains, educates, edifies and prepares tomorrow’s officers, tomorrow’s leaders of the Army. That is exactly why, its work is complex and superior.
Most of the officers of the Hellenic Army, who have graduated from the Academy these 190 years, have honoured their vows and many of them have fallen in the battlefields for the Homeland.
During these two centuries since the establishment of the Academy until today, the Hellenic Military Academy (Evelpidon) has constituted our Nation’s source of personnel, with members fighting and sacrificing themselves for higher ideals, decorating the pages of the recent Greek History with brilliance and heroism.
There are numerous examples in the course of the modern Greek State, where Officers acting above the limits of duty, fought to the end for our country’s independence and the freedom of the Greek people.
This was not supererogation but a new context which they gave to their duty, thus writing History.
The fight for liberty, the Balkan Wars, the Asia Minor Campaign, the Greco-Italian War, the Resistance during the German Occupation, have promoted the great national value of the Academy and its personnel’s devotion to the national ideals, at a collective level.
It is not a coincidence that the members of the tactical army, coming from the Hellenic Military Academy (Evelpidon), have staffed the leading echelons of the great National Resistance during the Nazi occupation of the 1941-1944 period, they organised the fight and offered their services.
Furthermore, many members took the initiative and joined the allied forces where they fought heroically, throughout the fronts of WWII.
Historical memory constitutes an element of the notion and the context of national defence.
Imagine an Army without any allusions to the history of the country, the state and the nation which it defends. It would be a hollow entity.
Historical memory constitutes the soul of National Defence. In that sense, it is national memory.
References to history, the promotion of models and also the drawing of conclusions and lessons, do not constitute fixation with one’s ancestors nor a barren obsession of self-assurance and national narcissism.
The morale, the conviction and the power of the Armed Forces are decreed – and to a great extent determined – by the sense of duty, the sense of continuation in space and time.
The military personnel serves the people, society, democracy. This is the State. This is the Nation.
The State has decorated the Academy four times, as a token of its respect and acknowledgment of its contribution. We must not overlook its honorary award of the golden medal by the Academy of Athens, in the occasion of its 100th anniversary since its establishment in 1928.
The quality training offered by the Academy to the personnel of the Armed Forces, based on the pillars of social contribution and the ideals of Democracy, established the power of the Armed Forces.
Based on the above we strive for the constant upgrade of the Hellenic Military Academy (Evelpidon) as well as of the other Higher Military Educational Institutions and Schools, since human as a factor constitutes the highest priority for the Ministry of National Defence.
Today’s Cadets, tomorrow’s officers and leaders of the Army, constitute the future of our National Defence until 2050.
They will carry the baton passed on from previous generations since 1828, up until the half of the 21st century. A heavy but fine burden.
Ladies and gentlemen,
The Ministry of National Defence is obligated to express its thanks to the military and civilian personnel of the Academy, a personnel which provides an everlasting contribution to its mission and preserves its stature, demonstrating, during these hard times, the way and the path for a truly spiritual exaltation in the sector of the Armed Forces.
Finally, I would like to state the assurance of the Political Leadership of the Ministry of National Defence and especially my own, that we support the work of all the Armed Forces Officers and NCOs Schools, we closely monitor the provided training and their activities and we will actually keep contributing to the improvement of your every day life in academic and service terms”.
The Deputy Minister of National Defence mentioned the following in her address:
“Ladies and gentlemen,
It is an honour to address my sincerest congratulations and respect to you, the future heads of the Army but also to the exceptional personnel of the Hellenic Military Academy (Evelpidon).
I thank you all, students, professors and instructors for the hope and power which you offer us.
Your high level and your exceptional performance is the greatest guarantee that the Greek citizens have nothing to fear, today and in the future.
Our Nation’s inspired leader, Ioannis Kapodistrias, striving to organise the state through the remnants of the long-lasting slavery to the Turks and the revolution for independence, aimed first of all to form a Tactical Army and establish this Army’s seed bed.
Therefore, on 1st July 1828 he established the Military Academy and he named it “Evelpidon”, because this Academy supported the fine hopes of the Nation. A fact which was confirmed from then until now.
The Hellenic Military Academy (Evelpidon) is the oldest spiritual institution of our State. The Greek Offers who staffed our Army, the Greek Officers who fell in the battlefields and those who abandoned their comfortable livelihoods to fight for the liberation of enslaved Greeks and occupied lands, graduated from this Academy.
Dear Cadets,
You are the future soul and mind of the Army, which is in turn the spearhead of our Homeland.
Your dutifulness and integrity secure for our Homeland the main strategic and tactical planning, in the execution of the critical actions for its protection, when the circumstances demand it.
We, as delegates of the Political Leadership, assure you that we are doing our best, in these hard times, so that you receive the best training of the highest quality in the fields and environment of military activity.
The Hellenic Military Academy (Evelpidon) continues the course it started in 1828 and constitutes the guarantee of consistency and safeguarding of everything that our people hold sacred.
I want to personally thank each and every one of you, who chose the difficult path of the Greek Officer. I wish that God will protect you, that you will always give joy to your families and that you will always make us proud.
Thank you and may you always be the best Cadets”.
