A protocol of cooperation in areas of mutual interest was signed today, Wednesday September 19, at the Ministry of National Defence, by the Minister of National Defence Mr. Panos Panagiotopoulos and the Minister of Education and Religious Affairs, Culture and Sport Mr. Konstantinos Arvanitopoulos.

The protocol provides the close cooperation between the two Ministries in areas such as culture, education, social protection services – among others.

The event was attended by the Deputy Minister of National Defence Mr. Dimitris Elefsiniotis, the Secretary General of the Ministry of Education Mr. Thanassis Kiriazis, the Chief of the Hellenic National Defence General Staff General M. Kostarakos, the Chief of the Hellenic Navy General Staff Vice Admiral K. Christidis, the Chief of the Hellenic Air Force General Staff Lieutenant General (AF) Antonios Tsantirakis, the Chief of the Hellenic Army General Staff Lieutenant General Konstantinos Gkinis, as well as the distinguished Olympic champions: Lieutenant (N) Eirini Aindili, Captain (AF) Hrissopigi Devetzi, Captain (AF) Dimosthenis Tampakos, Lieutenant (Army) Sofia Bekatorou, Lieutenant (AF) Katerina Voggoli, Second Lieutenant (Army) Nikolaos Ksilouris, Second Lieutenant (Army) Kalliopi Ouzouni and the World Champion Lieutenant (AF) Voula Tsiamita, who will participate in actions provided in the protocol of cooperation.

After signing the protocol, Mr. Panagiotopoulos and Mr. Arvanitopoulos made the following statements:

P. PANAGIOTOPOULOS: First of all, I would like to thank the fellow Minister, mister Konstantinos Arvanitopoulos, for his presence here. He is accompanied by the Secretary General, mister Thanassis Kyriazis.

It is a great pleasure for us today to see this effort we have started here starting to bear fruit.

As you can see, from our side, the deputy Minister Mr. Elefsiniotis, the leadership of the Armed Forces and the Staff officers are also present at this meeting which aims, by signing the protocol of cooperation between the two Ministries, at setting on a firm and solid basis the grounds for a long-lasting and efficient cooperation of these two agents, for the people and the country.

Our event is honoured by the presence of the Olympic champions, the ladies and gentlemen, the boys and girls who brightened modern Greece with their name, their effort, their success. They moved us to tears when with their struggle and their competitive spirit they lifted Greece up to the winners’ podium.

Thanks to these youngsters, who now belong to the Armed Forces, we had the honour to see the Greek flag hoisted at the Olympic Games and elsewhere, we had the honour to hear the Greek national anthem.

This wealth we have, I refer to the staff force in the Armed Forces which comes from the orders of the Greek championship and Greek Olympic medallists, we feel the need to utilize it to the advantage of our youth, at the level of ideals, Olympic culture, offering of knowledge and development of values, principles and concepts that can help our student youth during this difficult period.

What I describe to you is one aspect of the cooperation between the two Ministries. We want this cooperation to develop to other areas as well with various possibilities, by organising a series of lectures offered by cadres of the Armed Forces in matters concerning our nation’s history and struggles; the possibility of organising students’ visits to museums of the Hellenic Armed Forces, as well as any kind of activity which will help them approach the Armed Forces and the history of the Hellenic people’s and our country’s struggles. We want this kind of wealth to come nearer to our schools, our teachers, our children who study there.

In this framework, by initiative of the Minister Mr. Arvanitopoulos, we approved a very useful proposal of the political leadership in the Ministry of Education and we agreed on allowing the teachers of primary and secondary education to access, for example, catering services at the Armed Forces’ Officers Clubs, based on the provisions in force and, naturally, the existing capabilities, wherever no Student Halls exist, at distant areas of the country, since the financial circumstances for family or individual economy are difficult.

We believe that all that gets the Armed Forces, a part of the Hellenic people, even closer to school youth and confirm once more that the personnel working in and serving the Armed Forces comprehend the people’s problems and concerns, since they also are its part and they listen to its sorrows, its problems, its worries.

Once more, I would like to thank all those who have worked from both Ministries so as to begin this endeavour, from the Ministry of Education and from the Ministry of National Defence.

I would also like to thank all the Olympic medallists who honour us with their presence and offer an even more essential perspective.

I would like to thank personally my good friend, Ms. Pigi Devetzi, who assumed the difficult coordinating role which helped organising this event.

I wish to tell you that I believe this is only the beginning, for the Prime Minister has given explicit orders to proceed swiftly towards this direction and implement such policies that pass a symbolic, but also an essential, message that we shall overcome this crisis all together. All united, looking forward, supporting each other and developing bonds of social solidarity which aim at reinforcing social cohesion.

This is the message; with this message we shall proceed.

Allow me to underline, besides everything else, the importance of this cooperation to matters of historic self-awareness and historic self-consciousness of every Greek. Particularly the school youth, this year we celebrate 100 years since the victorious Balkan Wars of 1912, during which a small at the time Greece which reached Melouna in Thessaly, managed to double its area and domain.

A small detail I would like to underline; few years ago, in 1897, one of the hardest defeats of Greece had preceded. Greece at the time, which reached until Melouna, managed in a minimal period to recover from this severe defeat, come forward and double its domain.

Today we do not speak of wars with military operations, we speak of the financial war our country has with the markets. A war we have not chosen to fight, it was imposed on us. We shall win this war, Greece will win.

K. ARVANITOPOULOS: I would like to thank the Minister of National Defence Mr. Panagiotopoulos, a colleague and also a friend, as well as the staff officers at the Ministry of National Defence, for this cooperation, today’s welcome and the chance we were given to implement certain policies which I consider socially necessary during this difficult period we are living.

It is indeed a difficult period, we are all aware of that. We are living a period of a deep financial crisis which, we all believe, reach its end, approaches the end. Little by little, a light appears at the end of the tunnel.

It is an order given by the Prime Minister, besides the efforts made by all the Ministers so as to cope with the issues and help the country overcome the crisis, implement collaboration which aim at helping social groups that are severely touched; Greek citizens afflicted by this crisis.

With these policies we aim at developing social solidarity and assistance towards our citizens, so that they will be able to win through.

In this context, a series of policies we have been long discussing, are today crystallising in a Protocol. They concern a series of issues raised by Mr. Panagiotopoulos. For example the free access granted by us to museums and archaeological sites, something I believe was a standing demand by many social groups, one we are satisfying today; the capability, for our Olympic medallists who are social models, to give lectures to young people, inspiring them during these difficult times with the ideals of Athletics, Olympic spirit and volunteerism. I consider it extremely important at symbolic and essential level; the capability to help the Greek teachers, especially those who serve away from their families, away from their homes, and they come off with great difficulty. We help them just like we helped the students. We increased the beneficiaries of board providing, and we also increased the beds in student Residences to offer some help to the teachers as well.

What we ask of them, something we also ask of the personnel in the Armed Forces, is to accomplish a hard task, a critical vocation, in very difficult circumstances, with inadequate means. Therefore, the State must do whatever possible in order to support public officers in fulfilling their function.

We know, my colleague Mr. Panagiotopoulos and myself, that many could allege that such actions are very few, and they are indeed few, but they are what the State can currently do.

Certainly, be sure that when this crisis shall pass, the State will do what must be done in order to remedy the situation. All the cuts applied indeed afflict the employees, we all recognise that. It is not with a light heart we decide them, but it is the ultimate sacrifice to help the country out of the crisis. When the time will come, the State will do what is socially right and it will redress.

During this difficult circumstance, besides the sacrifices, and according to the explicit orders given by the Prime Minister, we must outwear every possibility to provide social welfare and goods, in order to be able to help Greek citizens, even in the least.

I am very pleased and I want to thank the Armed Forces and their political chief for this cooperation, for it is indeed very important.