The Minister of National Defence Panos Kammenos accompanied by the Chief of HAGS Lieutenant General Vasileios Tellidis and the Chief of HAFGS Lieutenant General Christos Vaitsis attended the commemoration which was held on Karpathos island, in memory of Air Force Captain Kostas Iliakis who died heroically nine years ago while defending his homeland.

A memorial service was held, a wreath was laid to the monument of the heroic Captain which has been built on Karpathos’ port and an F-16 aircraft of the “Zeus” team made a demonstration.

The Minister of National Defence addressed the following statement:

“Your Grace,

Fathers,

Representatives of the Hellenic Parliament,

Mayors, representatives of the local authorities,

Chief of the Hellenic Air Force,

Chief of the Hellenic Army,

Officers, NCOs, Airmen,

Relatives of Kostas Iliakis,

     I am very touched to be among you today in this event of commemoration and homage, in this symbolic and particular moment of our Hellenic Air Force, as the Minister of National Defence, although over the last five years we are together in this commemoration, to pay tribute to our Hero.

We are here today to honour a hero, who honoured the tradition of his branch and of the Armed Forces; a Greek who defended the values and principles of our nation, Captain Konstantinos Iliakis.

Our pilot, who did not hesitate, did not fear and did not give up. He fell while on duty, yet his memory remains alive and immortal in our minds and souls.

Officers like Kostas Iliakis, write with their blood our traditions and keep them fadeless, and keep Greek our air, seas and islands with their sacrifice. The skies belong to them. They have glory and honour. And we feel gratitude and acknowledgement.  

Within a few seconds, he decided to give the most valuable thing he had, his own life, for Greece. He left his beloved family behind, he left the joys of life to enter the pantheon of heroes. He did not give up, he was not brought to his knees, he did not yield. Our homeland won him forever, but his people lost him.

This is why today we must not overlook the human side and dimension, before the symbolisms of this heroic action. So, from this beautiful island of Karpathos, we are sending a message of sympathy to his people, to his family and his colleagues, his Squadron, his other family, who are present today around his monument to honour him.

And I wish to tell his beloved relatives, and mostly to his children, that you must be deeply proud, as we all are, for his career in our Hellenic Air Forces and his contribution to defence and security of our country. He had been distinguished. Everybody who knew him, remember his principles, his love to the homeland, his great love to Greece and the Hellenic Air Force. He defended his oath passionately and he decided to stay always in the skies, near the Archangels.

I realize that his absence costs his family and it has convulsed his family’s everyday life. It is really hard to lose a member of your family. This absence cannot be replaced no matter how many years have passed. It is a great legacy the fact that your brave Konstantinos is an example of devotion to one’s duty, an example of consistence, determination and self-denial. He is one of those people whose short life was and still is a long course of morale and courage.

I express, therefore, my respect to our hero and to those who continue this honoured career, as well as to all residents of our borders who are full of love and devotion to our homeland. I assure you all who guard our borders, that the new generation of Hellenic Air Force personnel perform their duty with pride, high national conscience and absolute success.

I am monitoring it closely because I consider myself too as a member of this big family of the Armed Forces and not just a Minister who knows only what happens in the corridors of his office, and I am aware of the burdens and adversities that our pilots, as well as the ground personnel face every day. In a spirit of self-denial and pure patriotism, they serve our Homeland and they give an everyday struggle for the protection of our national borders and our national interests, our national sovereignty. This is how our Armed Forces work.

At these moments of actual acknowledgement of the national contribution and beyond any reasonable emotional influence, we have a moral and national obligation to follow his example.  

This is why commemoration ceremonies, like this one, are sacred. The land of our frontier islands and our seas are sacred; sacred and nonnegotiable, because they do not only contain water and salt, yet they have been irrigated by the blood of so many heroes across the thousands of years of our history.

One might say, of course, that it is easy to say something and that suggestions usually overlook difficulties. We are often allured by a momentum, by an enthusiasm – I am allured too – and we suggest attitudes and behaviours which are difficult to be applied. How easy is it, really, to love your country more than your life? How easy is it to sacrifice yourself when many times this same country hurts you, disappoints you, forgets you?

I recognize that it is difficult to follow these suggestions, but we are here in this commemoration and we see what happens. We are inspired by brave people, like Iliakis, who make the very difficult things to look so simple. He shows us, with his simplicity, humbleness and dignity, what is the way and the manner for us to make our country stronger; to make the country that he deserves.

He reminds us and defines our mission, in a difficult period of time. At a time when the country, the Nation struggles to win back anything that was lost; it struggles against those who believe in globalization, in striking the flags, in eliminating nations – countries, in abolishing principles; against those who machinate against our national sovereignty, the sovereignty that Iliakis fell fighting for, for the Faith and the Country. All younger people should believe in the Country, we should defend the Country, as soldiers or as citizens, and we should pass such beliefs to our children as well.

We should redefine our course towards notions such as duty and national interest. We have the holy obligation to do it for all those “martyrs” who have shed their blood on every inch of this land, on ground, air and water. But also for one more reason; because we do not have the right to disdain every simple Greek citizen’s love and agony for what will become of all that we have fought for, to disdain the agony that Konstantinos Iliakis’ children feel as for the fate of their father’s sacrifice.

Your Grace,

Chiefs,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Greatness, sacrifice, happiness and solidarity are not economic sizes and they have no measurement scales. This is what History teaches us, this is what the hero we honour today taught us. I would like to remind you that whenever some people with ulterior motives assessed them materialistically and measured them, they finally caused the wrath of God and man.  

Please allow me to accompany with my voice the voice of all Greeks, to accompany your thought, the thought of all inhabitants of Karpathos and all borderline islands, and shout along with you all: “IMMORTAL”.