ATHENS – Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou sent a message of unity on Friday on the occasion of Saturday’s anniversary of the Greek Independence Day (March 25), saying that “Greece needs consistency, conscientiousness, all of us to be responsible, in order for it to move ahead and prosper.”

Speaking of the uprising against the Ottoman Turks, Sakellaropoulou said that “the Revolution of 1821 was endangered by the self-interest, opportunism, mistrust, and arrogance of the few,” but, she underlined, “succeeded because of the passion, selflessness, and self-sacrifice of the many. It managed to transform this land from a province of the Ottoman Empire to a Western, democratic, free nation – tp turn Greece into a modern state of law, in the core of a united Europe, a guarantor power of stability in the Southeast Mediterranean and the Balkans. And it passed on to it the memory of a sacred drive that transformed simple, common people into heroes.”

The Greek president called on reviving that drive at present, to focus once again on the collective good, “in order to release the forces and powers we have.” This is necessary in order to formulate the future as Greeks, justifying the glorious past, she added. “We have an obligation to our history and to all of those who fought on with the hope and dream of a Greece that would be both proud and strong,” she added.