The Minister of National Defence Panos Kammenos accompanied by HAGS Chief Lt General Vassileios Tellides, paid a visit to Molyvdoskepasto Outpost and the Molyvdoskepasto Holy Monastery in Epirus.  

The Minister of National Defence stated the following:
 
“We are here today at Molyvdoskepasto Outpost with HAGS Chief, the Commander of C’ Army Corps and  Staff Officers, where I will spend the night with our Officers, NCOs, Draftees and Territorial Guards. Our presence here in Epirus is conveying a message of keeping the Armed Forces strong, as we promised last year. This has been coordinated by means of evaluations and Special Forces exercises, by enhancing the Units in the Epirus region, which are indeed experiencing a great security problem, not a national sovereignty threat, because we are not under threat.

Allow me to thank from this very place and congratulate all Officers, NCOs Draftees and Territorial Guards for their excellent work. I would like to thank especially the people of the region who have embraced the Armed Forces. The love of the Greek people is the most important thing for the Armed Forces’ morale.  The Ministry of National Defence is moving towards this direction, seeking the support of all political parties, because the Armed Forces is not a field of political confrontations.

I would also like to send a message answering to all those who dare to dispute international treaties, international law and make provocative statements. On one hand, Turkey is bombarding us with statements in an effort to ignite the dispute. Our answer to this is given based on defending the country’s national sovereignty, respecting international law and international contracts.

If Mr. Erdogan wants to abolish the Treaty of Lausanne we will return to the Treaty of Sévres. From that point on we will have to understand that the constant losses of the Turkish Armed Forces, their absolute incapacitation following the coup, their constant defeats in Syria, have led to nonsensical statements which result in what we all witnessed this morning, Mr.Erdogan on his knees apologizing to the Russian President Mr. Putin for his statements on Syria. He will have to understand that he cannot continue for their own interior purposes to challenge the international public opinion, the Alliance and Greece.

This concerns not only Turkey but Albania as well. The recent blind-to-the-lessons-of- history statements by Mr. Rama should remind us that the people he is talking about are Nazi collaborators. During the war these people were by the side of the defeated.

We will not tolerate such challenges. We shall not tolerate such statements which insult history and international law”.