The Greeks have clearly given the world great personalities over the centuries – the Women of Zalongos, the National Benefactors, and the Unknown Soldier should not let any Greek with values, in Greece or abroad, sleep well at night.

We, in turn, must repay this debt to those who preceded us and honored our homeland with great deeds.

The three threats today are: the demographic crisis, the economic crisis, and the Turkish threat. The Demographic, as the first threat, is a result of the fact that Greeks do not give birth to many children. The burning issue of low birth rate does not concern any politician seriously. The allowance given for each child is ridiculous and is not an incentive to create a large family. Thus, Greece is declining. What must we Greeks do to avoid perishing like the Incas and the Mayans? It is simple: Only with many children is the population renewed…

What are we left with now? To give serious allowances for every child, to legislate tax relief, and to re-examine our trust towards ‘others’, namely, the new immigrants who come to Greece. It might help, if we are wise enough, to accept culturally compatible immigrants to us, so that Greekness is preserved and continued.

The financial crisis, as the second threat, continues. After the crisis of 2009-18, came the COVID-19 pandemic. Today everyone is on their knees and the joy of economic strength has been lost. The Greeks seem to have lost the Midas touch, which they always had. The price of meat rose by 19.9% and bread by 22.8%, according to Eurostat, over the last year. Because of this horrible situation you see people in the streets… talking to themselves!

Thus, the crisis continues and many leave in order to work as dishwashers in German restaurants or to staff foreign universities. It is a fact that they will marry and stay outside the borders, where they will be economically active – and they will grow old and die there. In order to beat the perpetual brain drain, the poverty rate must subside and new jobs must be created, which may then bring the much-desired brain gain.

Turkey is the third and biggest threat

Turkey (=militarization, Islam, strength) and Turkish expansionism. This third threat cannot be further underestimated by the Athenian elite, as we saw in a previous article. The Turks keep their eyes on the Aegean and its islands.

Already, they are changing or trying to steal its Greek history. They have started talking about ancient Turks. Homer has also baptized an ‘Ancient Turk’, as we saw in another article. At the same time, even if Recep Tayyip Erdogan leaves the scene and the Kemalists take over, they will be no less dangerous. They are the ones who committed the Armenian Genocide in 1915-17 and invaded Cyprus in 1974, and they are the ones who have been talking about ‘casus belli (cause of war) against Greece, since 1995. The Turkish politicians continuously speak against the Greeks.

The Turks seek our national extinction, and the American-bred chief propagandist Ibrahim Kalin considers today’s Greeks to be Ottomans. Turkey strategically aims to go from ‘Blue Homeland’ to reuniting the Ottoman Empire. Talk of Earthquake Diplomacy and ideas for co-exploitation of the Aegean show that Greece lacks a national strategy, while imperialist Turkey, on the contrary, believes what Mehmet A. Kanci once stated that, “he who dominates the Mediterranean Sea, dominates three continents.”

The threats are real, especially there are no people like Kolokotronis and Kapodistrias in the country today – without underestimating the bright exceptions among military and political personnel. Both, Kolokotronis and Kapodistrias (‘great-great-grandsons…’ of Thucydides and Themistocles) were very important leaders in the context of 1821 and its aftermath. There were great to the point where one can claim that no Greek mother will ever again give birth to such a son. And both of them were great because they had the principles and the values that we have somewhat forgotten.

It is our turn to do something, individually or all together, about the three existential threats facing the small country, but also the historical nation of the Greeks. Elections are an opportunity. For politicians who have not achieved anything for more than 20 years to go home. For a new leadership to emerge that will be able to deal with these three threats competently, and at the same time all together as Greeks, as soon as possible, to hold high again the values and principles that Kolokotronis and Kapodistrias had.

Then, Greece will be reborn culturally as well. In addition, the Greeks have a duty to stop the Turks, who march into the 21st century as if it were the beginning of the 19th, even with the sword if necessary. Greeks must be prepared psychologically for war in the Aegean Sea, the Islands, in Western Thrace, and in Cyprus). It is almost certain that in the coming years, the Greeks will be given the opportunity to do it in practice.

Dimitris Eleas is a New York-based political scientist and contributes to SLpress and The National Herald. You can contact him via e-mail: [email protected].