The handover takeover ceremony between the outgoing and the new political leaders of the Ministry of National Defence was held today.

The outgoing Minister of National Defence Panos Kammenos stated the following, at the ceremony:  

“Mr. Minister,

Chief of the Hellenic National Defence General Staff,

Chiefs,

Officers, Warrant Officers, NCOs, Conscripts, National Guards, Military Reporters and Civilian Personnel of the Ministry of National Defence,

Upon the dissolution of the Hellenic Parliament and the call for national election, I am handing over my duties in the Ministry of National Defence in which I took office in January 2015, being fully aware of this supreme honour I had to undertake huge responsibilities towards our Armed Forces, our political and military leadership and mostly towards the Greek people.

My taking office as Minister gave me the opportunity to work among earnest and valuable associates, regardless of ranks and posts, and also live within the hospitable ambiance of the Ministry of National Defence.

I had the honour to command the best Armed Forces in the world and in the Alliance.

The government and I personally, along with my associates, from the first moment that we took office, we showed in action that we pay great attention to the essential application of the constitutional provisions and parliamentary procedures, to the respect of principles and traditions.

Having the establishment of transparency and the consolidation of national unity on security and defence matters as main priorities we drew and applied an “open doors” policy with consistence in the Ministry of National Defence, an honest policy of cooperation with other governmental services, an open contact with the society and its bodies.

We achieved this over a short while along with the Alternate Ministers Mr. Kostas Isichos and Mr. Dimitris Vitsas and with the Deputy Minister Mr. Nikos Toskas, as well as with the leadership of the Armed Forces. Together we promoted targeted and essential improvements and changes with courage which addressed the reinforcement of our national defence system. We worked and we commanded with a full respect to the institutions, the tradition and the regulations which define the operation and chain of command of the Armed Forces.

Despite the unprecedentedly dire financial crisis, we safeguarded the battle worthiness and the effectiveness of our Armed Forces which ensure our country’s territorial integrity and national independence, as well as they promote its importance as a frontier bulwark of the European Continent against the expansion of fundamentalism and other asymmetric threats and risks emanating from the instability and conflicts in Europe’s neighbouring areas.
 
The effectiveness of our Armed Forces, across the whole spectrum of their activities, is a message to everybody; a message to our allies and partners, as well as to potential adversaries; a message of reliability, cooperation, peace and stability, yet a message of deterrence. It is exactly thanks to this determination that we proved that Greece can perform this strategic role that is required by its geographic position, history and civilization.

However, apart from their operational contribution, the Armed Forces and the Ministry of National Defence, through active military diplomacy contributed decisively to the creation of a grid of synergies, diplomatic convergences and energy cooperation with key countries of the region, such as Israel, Egypt and other democratic states in the wider area. During my tenure as a Minister of National Defence Greece evolved to an advantageous interlocutor and partner with states in this area and to a reliable agent that promotes stability in the region of the SE Mediterranean. We prepared the delimitation of the EEZ along with Egypt.

For us, the most important, of course, was and still is the security of Greek citizens and Greek nation. And I refer to the nation because we should not forget the Greek Cypriots to whom we have been fully committed to ensure their security. This feeling of security has been consolidated across our country by the presence of the Armed Forces by our fellow citizens who experienced the consequences of natural disasters and of the dire financial conditions.

Especially this contribution of the Ministry of National Defence was a substantial support to the Greek people and mostly to those residing along the borderline in every corner of the Greek territory. And this takes particular importance at present when significant and critical changes are taking place in our wider geopolitical and geostrategic area, and also in our country that gives a hard and multifaceted battle to attain financial balance and stability. We reinforced the regions of Epirus, Macedonia, Thrace and the islands of the Aegean by increasing our presence and exercises. We visited, together with the military leaders, outposts and we travelled and stayed on board military vessels.

Through a number of initiatives that my associates and I developed with the local communities, the public and private bodies, we managed to re-establish specialized departments and services, such as the Joint Command for the Construction of Works of the Armed Forces, thus expanding the social contribution, the effectiveness and the flexibility of using the Armed Forces’ capabilities to the benefit of the Greek civilians.

The common feature of all the aforementioned operational, diplomatic and social actions was the optimal utilization of the resources that the Greek people contributed with big sacrifices. Special attention was paid to eliminating the faults and deficiencies of the past which had afflicted the national defence and the Armed Forces were reinforced in a targeted, transparent, flexible and essential manner. We made it clear that no personnel reduction would take place, mainly of NCOs, as the creditors demanded. The only reduction that was applied regards the sales of old materiel of the three Branches with the consent of the military leadership.

Within this difficult and unstable financial environment, the promotion of the use of new accounting and audit standards was introduced in the Armed Forces, as was also the implementation of actions that help us achieve economy of scale in the procurements of material and systems. We also established and operated the Internal Audit Unit, we managed to shed light to “obscure cases” of the past in the vulnerable sector of procurements and send 19 cases to justice for inquiry and imputation of responsibilities.  

At this point, I ought to stress that my supporters and tireless associates in this effort were the military and civilian personnel of the Armed Forces, whose devotion, courage and self-denial I experienced and honoured every day with my constant presence in the activities and exercises of their Formations and Units. The manner in which we confronted these difficult situations for all of us makes me feel proud of being your political leader.

You did not strike, not for a mere second, the flag of duty and you sent a message of optimism, pride and strength to the tormented Greek society every day. You are an example for all of us and you enjoy the admiration and esteem not only of the Greek people, but of our country’s friends and Allies as well.

I will never forget the Commander in Kastellorizo who told me, while he was handing me the flag on the islets, that: “The Greek flags will never be struck on any part of this archipelago as long as even one of us is still alive. Only when we all die will anybody be able to step on our territory. Flags are only pulled down when they are worn, to be replaced”.

On our side, by acknowledging that you are the soul and force of our defence system, we tried from the very first moment, to find solutions to the many financial – and not only – problems you may be facing. Our aim was to create a framework of operation and residence for our career personnel and conscripts that would be based on meritocracy, transparency and reinforcement of all those who were afflicted by the long financial crisis and I believe that significant steps of progress have been made. We ensured the money from armament funds for the implementation of the decision of the Council of State and until yesterday, at the last moment, I made efforts for this money to be paid to the active and retired personnel of the Armed Forces.

In parallel, as far as the conscripts are concerned, the constitutional order for the equality of rights and parity of treatment among citizens was implemented for the first time. We are proud that we staffed our borderline units in a spirit of parity and social justice. We stopped this discreditable practice of separating conscripts to privileged and unprivileged. Nepotism is over. We reversed this unacceptable situation that we had found, with central units overstaffed with conscripts and remote border units being dangerously understaffed. Contrary to what military leaderships were asking for, political leaderships, unfortunately set nepotism before the needs of the army. We believe that it is a criminal lack of responsibility and that it creates erroneous attitudes to divide young people who come to serve their country, at their first contact with the Greek state, into favoured and unfavoured. This has stopped.

Moreover, because I have never been one of those who do “politics of promises”, I immediately took measures that rehabilitate justice for our frontier residents, as well as for all those who were called to serve their military service in conditions of financial tightness. I hope and I am sure that these actions will be continued and intensified for the total rectification of any act of injustice that all those who guard our country every day, who stand by our fellow citizens day and night, in emergency situations and in natural disasters, have had to endure without any grumble. Within a few days, already, the delay of the payment of the frontier service benefits will be amended. It is the last order I gave and I thank the Chief of Hellenic Army General Staff in particular because, in fact, within a few days we will manage to end this delay.

I believe that with a national vision and mood for hard work, we all managed to contribute, each one of us from his position of duties, to the reinforcement of our national defence and security, to the promotion of Greece’s position abroad and to the consolidation of Greece as a force of peace, security and stability in the region.

We started legislate the exploitation of the property of the Army, Navy and Air Force funds to the benefit of the Military Personnel. A property worth thirty four billion euros yielded only 1,100,000 euros annually. The whole property has already been recorded and the legal framework has been established for the use of this property to begin; it will not be sold but it will be rented and hotels will be built. The money which will be earned will be used for building new residences; new residences, many of which we already inaugurated.

We activated the Defence Industry, the Hellenic Defence Systems, the Hellenic Aerospace Industry, and the Hellenic Vehicle Industry. We went abroad with our public and private companies to promote Greece’s defence industry.

And we are ready to start executing new contracts. We activated almost all offsets and I wish to thank, at this point, the General Directorate for Armaments in particular. We started discussions and negotiations with companies from which we ask for compensations for the huge damages that old practices caused to the Armed Forces.

Addressing the military and civilian personnel of the Armed Forces, I wish to thank you very much for your unreserved contribution to my work and to assure you that I will always be a warm supporter in your everyday efforts, no matter in which position I may be. I wish you always to have the help of God and may Virgin Mary – whose feast is today according to the Julian Calendar – protect you; and remember that we have the sacred duty to honour those who fell as heroes for our country in peace or war time. We also commit ourselves to our children and to the proud future generations of Greeks to leave them a better homeland.

I wish also to thank Prime Minister and Chairman of the Government Alexis Tsipras once more for trusting me with this important Ministry, as well as Alternate Ministers Mr. Kostas Isichos, Mr. Dimitris Vitsas and Deputy Minister Mr. Nikos Toskas and our General Secretary Mr. Giannis Tafyllis with whom we cooperated closely for a common objective.

While handing over the leadership of the Ministry of National Defence to General and Honourable Chief of HNDGS, Ioannis Giagkos,

Mr. Minister I wish to assure you, as well as the Greek people, that my objective as well as the objective of my associates is the enhancement of the battle force, of the deterrence capability and of the effectiveness of the Armed Forces, by acting every day conscientiously, with everybody performing their duties in the field in which they were appointed to serve the country, for the common benefit and for our country’s dignity.

I wish to thank, in particular, the Director of my Military Office, Air Force General Theologos Symeonidis, all my associates, my aide-de-camps. I pray to Virgin Mary the Champion General and to patron saints, Saint George, Saint Barbara, Saint Nicholas and the Archangels.

I make obeisance to the war flags. I pay tribute to heroes by bowing the knee at the monuments. If Greek people wish so, we will soon be together”.

The Alternate Minister of National Defence, Dimitris Vitsas, said the following:

“Mr. Minister, you came in a place that you know very well and you have served it. Minister, Mr. Kammenos said everything. What we did. What we tried for. I have not much to add. I want only to say this. We did what we could and we did it to serve our people. We serve democracy. We serve democracy. We serve transparency. These were, for the short while I served here, our main characteristics and our main intentions.

There is still much to be done. We know it. Some of it has already begun and Minister spoke about it. We pay great attention to the reinforcement of the deterrence capability of our Armed Forces; and also to the care that should be taken for the military and the civilian personnel and to the utilization of the Armed Forces’ capabilities, so that, except their main duties, they have also their social effort.

Allow me to thank the Chief of HNDGS Mr. Kostarakos, the Chief of HNGS Mr. Apostolakis, the Chief of HAGS Mr. Tellidis and the Chief of HAFGS Mr. Vaitsis because, even over this short period of time, they honoured their work and themselves; allow me also to thank the personnel, military and civilian, of the Armed Forces. I wish to thank them for their ideas, their proposals, their advice that they gave us the opportunity to confront and overcome obstacles and new opportunities.

I hope that we will have the chance to do what we have in mind. I am sure that you will give the necessary impetus over the time period that you will be Minister in the Ministry of National Defence. Once more, we welcome you.”

The Deputy Minister of National Defence Nikolaos Toskas said the following:

“Mr. Minister, we welcome you in this so familiar to you space of the national defence and we wish you good luck to your duties. When, seven months ago, we took office, we knew the very difficult problems of our country, the very difficult problems of defence and we tried and struggled in order to improve the situation.

Above all, our main factor in this whole effort is the personnel that, as you know, it struggles day and night, 365 days a year, under adverse circumstances, with low incomes and yet it fulfils its duties and is worth of Greek people’s esteem.

I wish to thank Prime Minister for the honour he made to assign me these duties after a 35 year long service in the field of Defence. I wish also to thank Minister, Mr. Panos Kammenos, for our very good cooperation, Alternate Minister Mr. Dimitris Vitsas, the General Secretary, and Mr. Giannis Tafyllis and to wish you again good luck in your duties”.

The new Minister of National Defence, Ioannis Giagkos, stressed the following:

“Mr. Minister, I wish to express the great honour that I feel by succeeding you to the Ministry of National Defence. Due to my prior duties, I have always been following the developments in the Armed Forces. And, therefore, I had the chance to follow your work and it is for this work that I came to thank you on behalf of the Armed Forces.

This work, in my opinion, was characterized by two things. The first one was your exclusive interest in the personnel’s well-being and the second one was the effort to keep a high morale among the personnel in such a difficult period we are going through. I would like to thank you for this and wish good luck from now on.   

As for Mr. Alternate Minister, I did not have the opportunity and the honour to serve with him, to cooperate with him; I wish to thank him for welcoming me and wish him good luck as well. Finally, regarding the Deputy Minister, Mr. Toskas, with whom I had the pleasure and honour to cooperate in the past, I would like to stress that his views, his ideas, his approaches about the reorganization of the Armed Forces are radical and aim to create armed forces with increased operational capability which are appropriate for our country.

Although the duties of an Interim Minister of Defence include handling the current situation or confronting an emergency situation if it is required, I would like to comment, Mr. Minister, on the reorganization of the Armed Forces and add that we have to overcome the delays, the constant obstacles, the attitude of trade unionism and the old practices, and move forward onto a radical reorganization of the Armed Forces to create flexible and rapidly reacting Armed Forces capable of intervening effectively at any point of the Greek territory.

You surely know that the level of the Armed Forces’ personnel is very high; in particular, the level of middle ranks, from the rank of Lieutenant and Major and the respective ranks of the other branches, the personnel of Raiders Forces, the personnel of the War vessels, the personnel of the Military aircraft are very highly trained, able to compete skilful Armed Forces of other countries. And even excel them.

So, what is now necessary is for the leadership of the Armed Forces, member of which I have been too, to rise to the occasion and do what it must do. Again, thank you very much for the honour you made me to welcome me to the Ministry of National Defence and allow me to wish you good luck in your career from now on.”