Dendias at the memorial to fallen airmen: Greece’s sovereign rights “do not belong to any one of us to negotiate”

Defence Minister Nikos Dendias spoke about the country’s sovereignty and about those who fell defending it on Friday, November 6, in Glyfada. The minister attended the tribute event for fallen airmen, held at the Military Cemetery of Fallen Airmen, inside the municipality’s new cemetery, as part of the annual celebrations of the Hellenic Air Force.

After the memorial service, Mr Dendias laid a wreath at the monument, where the names of hundreds of airmen killed in the line of duty are engraved on marble plaques.

“They do not belong to any one of us”

The central message of the address concerned sovereign rights. “The sovereignty and sovereign rights of the country, as provided for in its constitutional charter and in international treaties, do not belong to any one of us to negotiate freely and diminish,” the minister said. He added that Greek airmen, by their presence and, when necessary, their sacrifice, allow the country to hand them on to the next generation “as we received them, and enhanced if possible”.

The remark was heard on the same day the Foreign Ministry approved the GSI works and the NAVTEX for the Abeille Marengo east of Crete was issued; see our report on the NAVTEX for the Abeille Marengo.

Mr Dendias repeated an image he often uses: Greece “does not have the good fortune of Luxembourg”. It sits at an enviable spot on the map, which, however, “is not the neighbourhood of angels”, and for that reason it must maintain national vigilance. Society, he continued, must constantly remember that freedom and the ability to decide its own future rest on people in uniform, willing to give even their lives. He concluded that preserving national independence and sovereignty “demands sacrifices” and that the nation owes the fallen gratitude and the preservation of their memory.

The monument and the Air Force land

The minister recalled that the monument stands on Air Force land that belonged to the Hellenic Air Force and was ceded to the municipality of Glyfada during Mr Dendias’s first term at the Ministry of National Defence, to become the new cemetery. He acknowledged the contribution of Mayor Giorgos Papanikolaou and, “for reasons of political honesty”, of his successor at the ministry, Panos Kammenos. He also said the Ministry is now working with the municipality of Alimos on another social issue, with the help of MP Sofia Voultepsi.

Those present included the Chief of the Air Force General Staff, Lieutenant General Dimosthenis Grigoriadis, the mayors of Glyfada and Alimos, Giorgos Papanikolaou and Andreas Kondylis, the Attica Regional Governor Nikos Hardalias and MP Sofia Voultepsi. The Panhellenic Association of Families of Fallen Airmen was represented by retired Lieutenant General Antonios Vasileiou, honorary commander of the Hellenic Air Force Academy. ERT published the full address.

Visit to the ETIM

From the cemetery Mr Dendias went to Ano Glyfada, home of the ETIM, the Air Force factory for telecommunications and electronic equipment. There its commander, Colonel (Eng.) Dimitrios Skevofylax, briefed him on the mission and on the factory’s production and research work, which repairs and maintains electronic weapon systems and telecommunications equipment of the Air Force and develops its own solutions for upgrading, integrating or building systems.

The Air Force celebrations coincide with a period of major change for it, from the F-35s and Link 16 to the plan for aerial refuelling.