The Minister of National Defence Nikos Dendias visited the Telecommunications and Electronics Factory of the Hellenic Air Force accompanied by the Chief of HAFGS Lieutenant General Evangelos Tournas.

The Minister of National Defence was briefed about the activities of the factory and he stressed:

“It is a great pleasure for me to be here today to address you the wishes of the political leadership of the Ministry. It is also extremely interesting, Commander, that you presented me a briefing which could have been presented by the personnel of a high-tech company to a person interested in its activities.

The fact that you also calculate the cost needed to produce the result shows a perception which, if adopted, if we succeed to make it adopted in every work produced by the Armed Forces, we will achieve spectacular results.

It is certain that women and men of the Hellenic Air Force and in general of the Armed Forces do a great job in their field. During the recent incident of Norman Atlantic, it was proved that, if the Armed Forces had not contributed, we would have mourned for many more victims.

It is true, however, that there are some cases of insufficiency, in the sense that we must follow another way of thinking, as the Ministry of National Defence; another perception about solutions and human and material resources to achieve the best result. There were times, Ladies and Gentlemen, when we thought that there was an abundance of money and this, definitely, proved to be not true, later.

Anyway, our country ought to keep its Armed Forces and support the objectives of defending national independence and integrity with much less money. By no means does this mean that we will do this less effectively and less successfully.

Over the last years, the Hellenic Armed Forces have proved that they may achieve the same results with much less resources. We have learnt how to utilize older systems, to repair items which previously were disposed, to find out solutions in cases where we previously could not and we had to purchase and import products.

This is why I want to tell you that I felt extremely well today and I wanted to say it in public, as praise”.

Later on, Mr. Dendias, accompanied by the Mayor of Glyfada Georgios Papanikolaou and the Metropolitan of Glyfada Pavlos visited the land which will be ceded by the Hellenic Air Force for the construction of the Municipal Cemetery following an amendment submitted and adopted by the Parliament, thus solving a major social problem.

The Minister stated:

“Ladies and Gentlement,

The Municipality that hosts the Hellenic Air Force had a great need which regarded the society, as far as the total concept and philosophy that we, the Orthodox Christians, have about life and death. It was not just a shortage of space.

The Hellenic Air Force and the Ministry of National Defence came to help to cover this need, as it was proper. We address to a specific society with a concrete perception about things.

I am very proud of this, Your Eminence, because it was during my tenure when the Ministry of National Defence, thanks to the action taken by the military leadership managed to solve the problem. The Hellenic Air Force, Your Eminence, needs your love. We thank you for this expression of gratitude, but it was an action which we ought to society.

The Chief – and I wish to say it in front of him – and his officers had a great contribution. I am happy that the majority of the Hellenic Parliament –one would wish it for the whole Parliament, yet some of us had diffirent opinions, which is in any case respected – adopted the proposal I submitted and voted for this specific provision which allows us to be here and help the society of the place which hosts the Telecommunications and Electronics Factory.”