ATHENS – “Our country, this year stronger than ever, celebrates its Armed Forces. With its defence protection upgraded and the diplomatic network of its alliances spread everywhere. With a growing economy that supports the income of the citizens against the imported price hike in another crisis from which we will come out winners,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said in his message for the celebration of Armed Forces Day on Monday, pointing out at the same time that “we turn our backs on those who question the defence of our country.”

“In an period of international instability and with a war in the heart of Europe and open threats on our borders, the Day of the Armed Forces becomes the Day of the entire Greece and of all Greeks. An opportunity for national rallying and self-confidence, but also a day to pay tribute to the timeless guardians of the country’s independence and progress,” he stressed.

“Today, we honour the men and the women that honour the national emblem on land, sea and air, day and night,” the prime minister said underlining that we are “responding with readiness to provocation and with caution to every threat. We turn our backs on the few who question the defence of our country.”

President Sakellaropoulou’s statement on Armed Forces Day

The President of the Republic Katerina Sakellaropoulou participated on Monday morning in the doxology at the Holy Metropolitan Church of Athens for the celebration of Armed Forces Day and then laid a wreath at the Monument to the Unknown Soldier.

“The Armed Forces, with the perfect level of training, readiness and patriotic ethos that characterizes them, are the guarantor of our national independence and the security of our borders,” the President said in a statement and added: “We honor those, in the nation’s historic journey, that did not succumb, no matter how strong the enemy was, and they also sacrificed their lives so that we can be free today. They have our gratitude forever.”