Welcoming the welcome event of the 41st Peace March Marathon, Mr Vaios TsaprounisActing Lieutenant, President of the Union of Officers of the Xanthi Regional Unit, said:
“It is a great joy and emotion and an even greater honor to be among you today. I join here, at the end of the 41st Marathon Peace March that followed the indelible, historical steps of Grigoris Lambrakis, with people who, with stubbornness, patience and perseverance, fight for the supreme good of the peoples, peace, exposing at the same time all those who usurp it .
The wonderful and important struggles of the Hellenic Committee for International Recession and Peace, EDYE, cannot leave unmoved and unaffected any person who has even a grain of popular solidarity in his character.
My decision to accompany you, to lead my steps next to yours, to join my voice and anguish with yours, was for me a conscious one-way street. They are a choice, identified with my love for our people, but also my status as an active military officer to serve the interests of the people from which I come.
EDYE, the members, the friends, the people who embrace its ideals, all of you, I believe that you are one of the most important choices and hope of overturning the policies applied until now, which I am very afraid will bring the war conflicts even more close to our borders, possibly even through them!
These days, as you well know, are at a critical juncture in which the outbreak of even World War III appears to be closer than ever!
The developments are stormy and unfortunately the Greek governments are taking the lead where they should not be, not even as spectators!
The choice of our country’s involvement in hostilities on the one side of the warring forces taking place in our neighborhood, between NATO, the USA, the European Union on the one hand and Russia and other powers on the other, is not only a shame, but a prelude to an extremely dangerous targeting of our people.
The unprecedented dispatch of war material by the Greek Armed Forces to Ukraine, in a war front where people are being slaughtered for interests foreign to their own, is in complete opposition to the will of the Greek people.
I am a permanent officer and have served in the Armed Forces for 25 years. I have the specialty of pyrotechnician. All this time I trained and worked on all kinds of ammunition and explosives. I fully understand the basic principles of their operation, but mostly I know the results of their use, both on inanimate and animate targets.
Surely you know the position of the government, that this war material, ammunition, weapon systems and combat vehicles that we are sending to Ukraine, are not necessary as old material for the defense of the country. So since this is the case, the future of these munitions should be one: Their safe dismantling in special factories and their destruction.
On the contrary, the Greek government chooses to feed the meat machine of death in Ukraine with them, to participate, for a “handful of dollars” that it will get from its sale, in the hundreds of graves of the dead, the injured, the disabled, advancing one more a step further, sending white phosphorous ammunition there too! Ammunition that is prohibited by UN treaties to be used against humans, because it causes respiratory burns, burns the flesh slowly and excruciatingly, developing temperatures of up to 1,300TheC, while the healing of wounds is a real Calvary!
We have seen these practices in the past. We saw them being used by the Israeli army against the Palestinians, by the US forces in Fallujah, Iraq. Their possible use in Ukraine will make Greece complicit in war crimes.
However, the involvement of our country, as well as parts of the Armed Forces, are not limited to the Ukrainian front. It is known that a second war front is underway, in the Red Sea. Greece participates in this, through the armada of the European Union, against the Houthis, with the frigate “Hydra”. It is the well-known “SHIELDS” mission. With her participation in this dangerous mission, the ship’s crew is exposed to very serious risks, and this is to ensure the interests of the shipowners, but also the integrity of their containers!
It is comforting that there was considerable difficulty in convincing the military that this mission was in “our national interests”.
We answer that we don’t eat hay, or at least we stopped eating it years ago! And because the argument of “national interests” did not convince, the government took advantage of the economic impoverishment of the military and especially of the low-ranking and low-paid, an impoverishment of course that did not fall from the sky. He also took advantage of our families’ increased livelihood needs, but also the threat of layoff. All this, to make it possible to “set up” and send a ship in a modern, hostile environment, where it is teeming with asymmetric threats.
In addition, in the same mission plan is the presence of the “Patriot” artillery in Saudi Arabia, the anti-tank platoon in Novo Selo, Bulgaria.
But all of the above objectively weaken the defense of the homeland. Of course, together with the “facilities” we provide to NATO and the USA, in our country’s camps, ports and airports, they are a guaranteed recipe not for the protection of our people, but on the contrary for targeting them!
Russia, as well as Iran, have weapons systems capable of hitting the port of Alexandroupolis, the airport of Nea Anchialos, the port of Souda, but any area of Greece where they consider that there are elements of a threat to them.
These developments, combined with the huge expenditure on armaments programs, foreign to the defense needs of the country, with the accuracy galloping, with the inability to cover our basic needs, but also the consequent decline in our standard of living, be sure that they do not leave the military in the least indifferent.
The belief that the problems of the military and the people are common, as are the causes that give rise to them, is steadily expanding every day.
Friends,
Feeling the debt towards my conscience, my roots, which are inextricably linked with our people, I declare and at the same time commit that I choose to stand by you, to be inspired by the messages of your struggle, to fight with you for a better tomorrow, a tomorrow that I, my colleagues, our people, the peoples of the whole world deserve.
This is also my choice on which side of history I will stand.
Yes, I choose to be on the side of the people and their interests, because they are the only ones who can stop the war-mongering schemes from wherever they appear.
Yes, I choose with you to demand the return now of the frigate “Hydra” from the Red Sea, the artillery ““Patriot” from Saudi Arabia, the anti-tank platoon from Bulgaria, but also every Greek colleague of mine from overseas missions.
Thank you, good racing!’
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