ARIS PORTOSALTE: How are you Mr. Minister?

NIKOLAOS PANAGIOTOPOULOS: We are closely watching all fronts in which we are involved. We try to plan our next steps, the next day. It goes without saying that we are always alert, watching our backs and trying to avoid any dire situations whether they are incidental or not. I might travel to Evros myself –we are yet to decide this – to see whether the information we are bombarded with is true, that is if the refugee camp in Kastanies is dismantled or not.

ARIS PORTOSALTE: Ok…

NIKOLAOS PANAGIOTOPOULOS: They seem to be getting on buses and moving to the interior of the country. It is undoubtedly an important development. Turkey is somehow changing its stance, that said we are not changing our deployment. The alert is still on. We remain on stand–by. We do not rush to celebrate any glorious victories or claim a triumph.

The alert is still on and when we get the whole picture we will decide on the way ahead, of course in cooperation with the Ministry of Citizen Protection and the Prime Minister, with whom we cooperate, we are following his orders with a view to develop a defence plan in Evros, which seems to be working.

ARIS PORTOSALTE: I am reading that the Turkish Minister of Interior Mr. Soylu during a Turkish network interview reiterated his known-to-all claims, so it remains to be seen how these are renewed. He stated that as of February 28 15,000 persons have crossed the Evros borders while another 4,600 persons are waiting at Pazarkale, at their own side across Kastanies. He also claims that “the Greek forces are firing plastic bullets against immigrants and refugees, we have warned them in English via speakers that if they continue doing so we will respond tenfold. They did it again and we responded more than tenfold, by bombarding them with rounds and tear gas for hours”. To make this clear Mr. Panagiotopouls, our borders defenders, the Armed Forces, the Greek Police, the border guards and all those people who are deployed, the foreigners, the foreign European services, what did they all go through?

NIKOLAOS PANAGIOTOPOULOS: It is a fact that this is the new superhero of the Erdogan regime, at least as far as pompous words and statements are concerned with evident or disguised threats directed to the Greek side. Obviously most of these statements are uttered for interior consumption purposes…

ARIS PORTOSALTE: What we want to keep Mr. Minister is what he said, that “we bombarded the Greeks with rounds and tear gas”.

NIKOLAOS PANAGIOTOPOULOS: At some point it felt as if war operations were conducted up there in Evros. If you ask the men and women of the Armed Forces and the Hellenic Police who guarded the borders I am quite certain that they say the exact same thing.

Because there was a plan as well as vigour, decisiveness and good organization on part of the officials who organized the defence of the borders, all efforts of the other side did not work. This is the result of hard work through time.

ARIS PORTOSALTE: You mean preparation …

NIKOLAOS PANAGIOTOPOULOS: Yes! This was not communicated widely to the public opinion; however this was the case. Evros has been organized for some months now. If you can recall, in the beginning of December we came up with the institutional framework for this type of organization in Evros, with the establishment by the Hellenic Parliament of an Integrated Institution of Border Surveillance by means of a draft law. This institutional framework laid the ground for the impeccable cooperation between the Armed Forces and the Hellenic Police.

This way we were able to have this result of absolute cooperation at all levels, between militaries and the police. This would have been impossible without the Integrated Institution of Border Surveillance. The forces were reinforced not by the evident movement of whole units in Evros but gradually.

When the crisis burst out – I remind you that Turkey had in mind to surprise Greece on the bank holiday of the Ash Monday – we were ready. This is why Evros is still standing and Evros will keep standing. Of course this is owed to our staff but also to the inhabitants of Evros who have demonstrated extreme courage and decisiveness, in any case this was the result of a well coordinated effort and preparation through time.

ARIS PORTOSALTE: These days rumours are intentionally spread on the web that the mass travel of refugees from Turkey is still on, via sea. What is the picture you get? What would you say to the Greek public, to all the men and women, because some of us tend to get carried away by what is being written…

NIKOLAOS PANAGIOTOPOULOS: This is not exactly the case. I told you what is happening in Evros, they seem to be evacuating, however the given is that we are not resting on any laurels, I want to make this clear.

ARIS PORTOSALTE: What about the islands?

NIKOLAOS PANAGIOTOPOULOS: The situation is quite different on the islands because of the different nature of the problem there. A massive deterrence operation is underway, mainly by the Coast Guard, for all those who try to go to the islands by vessels. This operation has so far been effective, and the difference great and qualitative compared to past operations.

In any case we remain alert, there is still a “red alert”. Of course the flows are decreased, however the problem lingers. We expect that when conditions are ripe there will again be incidents of massive entry efforts from our islands to mainland Greece. We will deal with them as we do today, I would like to point out that the Coast Guard has changed its stance, meaning that they are conducting deterrence operations at sea. Which seems to be working.

ARIS PORTOSALTE: What about the coronavirus?

NIKOLAOS PANAGIOTOPOULOS: Allow me to comment on this. I heard your very interesting brief comments in relation to the financial impact it will have. My opinion is that the only manner to deal with the very dramatic financial impact it will have on global economies is to inject a very brave, a massive fluidity shot in the economies. This should be applied not only on the bank systems but on the real economies as well, the real life enterprises and the households.

What the USA have decided to do is to allocate 3 billion dollars for fluidity in the economy. Europe should move along the same lines.

The Prime Minister along with the other European leaders proposed this the other day. I do hope that any reactions and resistance be overcome, because the frozen -nearly zero – production activities and commerce can only be dealt with this fluidity shot, at least for the foreseeable future. Otherwise we would be talking about Activity Code Number measures, for teams that will be entitled on not to certain reinforcing benefits policies, however the problem will not be totally addressed this way.

As long as economic social activities remain suspended, the problem will worsen. This is a personal belief, I reiterated it the other day before the Ministerial Council, it remains to be seen….

ARIS PORTOSALTE: The Armed Forces and coronavirus…

NIKOLAOS PANAGIOTOPOULOS: We are trying to take all necessary measures to protect the operation of the Armed Forces, as you understand we have no choice but to continue operating.

We have some isolated cases concerning some of our members with underlying health conditions. Unfortunately, the other day a Warrant Officer died in Xanthi, again with underlying health problems. A great effort is underway to protect all Armed Forces members. That’s the whole point of the measures taken for the entire society.

For this reason, we have not granted any leaves to draftees following their oath taking. That is they cannot leave their camps and supposedly return with the virus and spread it to others. To offset this, their service will be reduced by 10-15 days.

Additionally, we will not grant any leaves to our personnel for Easter. We will reassess and reexamine these measures as Easter approaches. We are not being dogmatic, we try to be flexible and keep a protection rationale against the coronavirus for all Armed Forces personnel. We are also enhancing our infrastructures.

ARIS PORTOSALTE: Are there masks, gloves and protective material? I get a lot of messages from parents whose children are serving at the moment…

NIKOLAOS PANAGIOTOPOULOS: Yes, there are. Of course the hygiene conditions are good, excellent in some cases, there are cases however where there is room for improvement, in any case on an average scale the hygiene conditions are good in all our Camps.

There is no fear in our Camps and our Military Academies because there were several interventions. There is nothing to worry about. The members, students and draftees in military academies don’t run the risk of being affected. That said we need to be alert and careful. At the same time we are trying to prepare health structures of the Armed Forces, to facilitate the work of the Ministry of Health, such as by offering the Army Pension Fund Hospital for as long as needed. I remind you that the Army Pension Fund Hospital is for retired officers, it is the Hospital of the Army Share Fund and that is where it is affiliated.

This constitutes a written agreement with the Ministry of Health. We have made the hospital available to the Ministry of Health so that is reinforces the health structures dealing with the coronavirus and of course this way its technical and logistics infrastructure will be upgraded, which will remain to the benefit of retired officers once we get out of this crisis. Additionally, we are mobilizing Army production units which will produce masks and antiseptic lotions. These procedures are underway and there will be further assistance in the future. We cannot be exempted from this general mobilization of the country to combat this peculiar and dangerous situation. We are present in this fight.

ARIS PORTOSALTE: Our listeners have one last question! The Attica Drafting Service is making it mandatory for Draftees, who have been deferred from induction by the competent Committee of the Athens Garrison Station to present themselves to the Deferment Committee of the 401 General Military Hospital of Athens. Maybe this could be postponed for when the whole thing is over…maybe?

NIKOLAOS PANAGIOTOPOULOS: This remains to be seen. These measures are adjustment measures to a specific Order or Directive. The spirit is to protect and not to punish anyone.