The political and military Leadership of the Ministry of National Defence attended the inauguration ceremony of 22 apartments of Officers Quarters in Thessaloniki. He also attended the oath taking ceremony Corps Officers Military School graduates, held at the premises of the School, Thessaloniki.    

The Minister of National Defence, in his address during the inauguration ceremony, stated the following:

“I am especially pleased to be here today to inaugurate 22 new apartments of Officers Quarters in Thessaloniki which is a least acknowledgement by the Ministry of National Defence of the needs of the personnel of the Armed Forces and their families.

The political Leadership of the Ministry of National Defence, the government and the Greek people can express nothing else, but honour about the Armed Forces who labour, days and nights long, for our country’s security and defence, as well as about their families who support them participating in their difficulties and concerns, their assignments and transfers under difficult conditions.    

We are always concerned with personnel’s matters and our support for our manpower is a main direction of our policy. I will reiterate, once more, what I say almost every day; that the biggest armaments programme of the Hellenic Armed Forces is their personnel.

Since the moment I took office as Minister of National Defence by decision of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, the military leadership and I are struggle to gradually solve the housing problem of the Armed Forces personnel through a long-term housing programme for all the ranks of the chain of command, Officers, NCOs, professional soldiers and their families all over Greece, in big cities, on borderline areas, but mostly, in those areas where Armed Forces personnel have to pay more than 80% of their salaries to cover their housing needs due to continuous assignments.

Towards this direction, we are working on a programme, with seriousness and persistence, and this inauguration ceremony is the continuation of the house construction programme for the Armed Forces personnel in the area of Thessaloniki. Following this policy, personnel’s living standards and quality are improved under dire financial conditions, with difficulties for our country, as well as for our citizens.

We managed to offer housing to many families in a period of only two years despite cuts and restrictions imposed by sound financial management but mostly because the programme was largely accepted by the personnel of the Armed Forces. Last year, we offered more than 100 houses and this year we will offer more than 400 houses for the personnel of the Armed Forces.      

At this moment, I would like to thank the Engineer in particular. We saw, yesterday, Land Minefield Clearance Battalion undertake a very difficult and dangerous mission in the city of Thessaloniki, and compete it successfully. Today, we inaugurate this building which was constructed with a budget with which we would not have been able to respond even to a 10% of the needs we cover now.

I would also like to say that it was the Engineer that undertook also the difficult tasks to be performed for the Armed Forces to respond to the refugee issue. Within approximately 13 days, we managed to build those famous five hotspots on islands, as well as relocation centres all over Greece.

Greece, the Hellenic Armed Forces took credits from the whole world. Their participation was acknowledged by the former President of the United States of America, by high rank leaders of the European Union, as well as by the Russian President Putin for responding to this big global issue; all this thanks to the Engineer.

Having re-established MOMA (Service for construction works) – now called MOMKA – we saw the Engineer be present at every difficult situation, in natural disasters, as well as stand by our border residents, in particular, on islands, creating infrastructure which could not have been created by the private sector. This does not mean, however, that it competes the private sector.

The income that we receive – apart from state budget – from the exploitation of estate and of the property of the Hellenic Armed Forces are spent to the benefit of the personnel, primarily used for the construction of houses.

At this moment, I would like to stress that, because there are many requests by various bodies, the Region or Municipalities, to rent property of the Armed Forces, our decision is clear. Local government authorities will be given priority to rent these spaces, yet no property will be rented if it does not satisfy the revenue of 5% of their retable value per year.

This money will not be spent for armaments programmes, yet to the benefit of the personnel. At this point, I would like to say that we have reached a very good agreement on the issue of “Pavlos Melas” camp: the government will concede the camp to the municipality as a counter-performance for the construction of at least 100 houses for the personnel of the Armed Forces.

We are convinced about the successful operation of the programme, we continue with greater determination. I take this chance to congratulate the leadership of the Hellenic Army General Staff, as well as all the Commanders across the chain of Command for their immediate contribution to the operation of the Officers Quarters.

I would also like to thank local community for demonstrating their love to the Armed Forces through their actions. Our country’s Armed Forces are an inseparable part of the Greek society and this is the message that we all should express to the personnel of the Armed Forces.

I would like to thank the residents of borderline areas who support the personnel of the Armed Forces and realize that their presence here is necessary not only in war time, but that it is their readiness and professionalism that ensure us peace.    

Peace is ensured when you are ready to deal with any threat.

I wish Officers and NCOs who will reside in these houses to be happy and live under better conditions after this work.

Everybody enjoy your stay!”