The Minister of National Defence Panos Kammenos accompanied by the Chief of HNGS Vice Admiral Evangelos Apostolakis and the MP of “Independent Hellenes” party in Herakleion constituency Kostas Damavolitis attended the commemoration on the 74th Anniversary from the Razing (Holocaust) of Kandanos.
He also visited the Road Accidents Park in Nerantzia, Platania municipality, earlier today.
The Minister of National Defence made the following statement:
“Today, here, in Kandanos, we honour the people killed by the German atrocity. They slaughtered an entire village. They thought that they eradicated Kandanos, yet Kandanos rooted again along with its people because Nazism atrocities can never exterminate a national that fights for their dignity, for their national sovereignty, for their territorial integrity.
Whoever may have tried to strike the Greek people, whether by war means or by financial means, should know that this land never surrenders”.
JOURNALIST: Minister, authorities on Crete are concerned due to some press articles which refer to the installation of US unmanned aerial vehicles in Kasteli.
P. KAMMENOS: There is no concern. I explained it yesterday; military airports will be deployed separately from the civil airports. First of all, our aim is for the Units of the Hellenic Air Force to be enhanced. NATO premises at Souda, Chania prefecture, will be maintained and expanded. Greece’s proposal to NATO and the USA is any aerial activity to be deployed to Karpathos island, so that the landing of tourist aircraft is facilitated and a wider space is made available for the Alliance. This is a proposal that will be considered during the next minister meetings.
And, of course, I wish to reiterate a firm opinion which, however, is my opinion and also opinion of the INDEPENDENT HELLENES party, that Chania airport cannot be ceded. It is in a five-year programme funded by the European Union which forbids its privatization.
JOURNALIST: Is it possible for it to be excluded?
P. KAMMENOS: We will fight for its exception, because this is what the law provides for. It is according to European law that Chania airport should be excluded unlike other airports. The INDEPENDENT HELLENES keep a firm opinion about the issue of the airport. I suggest it to the government too and we, as Ministry of National Defence, we will do anything to implement it. A very big airport should be built on Crete which will serve tourism and will also utilize this great advantage of Crete, to be in the middle of three Continents, Europe, Asia and Africa. Such an airport, which may bring tourists in transit station for two-three days, can be built. We cannot install military and civil airports too close to each other. We will proceed with planning it along with the local authorities, through dialogue with all citizens and statesmen. Now, everybody have their opinion, we will listen to it carefully and we will consider it.
JOURNALIST: Minister, a comment about the negotiations.
P. KAMMENOS: Negotiations are going on normally. I wish to say that the negotiations will be conducted according to people’s vote in the elections. The Prime Minister himself has taken over the negotiations and I am sure that we will end up in a deal to the benefit of the Greek people.
