N. Panagiotopoulos: Weapons for Ukraine from stocks and not from developed systems

From the stocks and not from developed systems “of any point of our defense order” are the weapons that were sent to Ukraine, repeated from the podium of the Parliament, the Minister of National Defense, Nikos Panagiotopoulos.

Speaking during the ratification process of international memoranda, Mr. Panagiotopoulos said that the front page of a newspaper “which says that we sent weapons six times is not valid. No, what we sent went on six routes”, the Minister of National Defense explained and continued: “It is not possible every time we have the repetitive show, the theatrical performance to be heard outside the same, and the same, while they have been answered “. As for whether the national defense is “weakening”, he reiterated that “we do not take from ordered, already developed systems of any part of our defense order. From the reserves we sent to the Ukrainians, not from those that are developed”.

Referring to the discussed memoranda, which were voted “by a majority” by the plenary of the Parliament, and in particular those concerning the establishment of the Center of Excellence in Maritime Safety in Istanbul, Mr. Panagiotopoulos said that the logic of our country is to participate in such structures “by its presence, not by its absence”. The Centers of Excellence are not primarily NATO military structures, but organizations with an advisory role, reservoirs of thought, providing advisory services to the alliance. Similarly, the Naval Prevention Center based in Souda, added Mr. Panagiotopoulos, assuring that “there is no overlap” by the new structure in Istanbul.

The passed bills concerned (1) the ratification of the Memorandum of Understanding between Greece, Turkey and Romania on the establishment, administration and operation of the Center for Excellence in Maritime Safety in Istanbul, (2) the ratification of the Memorandum of Understanding between Greece, Turkey and Headquarters of the Supreme Allied Commander Transformation regarding the operational relationship concerning the Center for Maritime Safety Excellence and (3) the ratification of the Security Agreement between Greece and Norway on security for the exchange and mutual protection of classified information.

Specifically, ND and the Movement for Change were in favor of the ratification of the three memoranda, SYRIZA and Hellenic Solution voted against the memoranda for the Center of Excellence but voted in favor of the memorandum with Norway, while KKE and MERA25 voted against all three memoranda.

Earlier, the parliamentary representative of SYRIZA G. Katrougalos raised the issue of conjuncture in the ratification of the memoranda for the Center of Excellence. As he said, since October 2019, when the relevant agreement was made, we have had extreme behavior from Turkey, the theories of the blue homeland, the illegal Turkish-Libyan pact, the illegal Turkish law for search and rescue in the Aegean. [..] “Is it possible to consent to these illegal moves, in fact, in a hurry, before even Turkey ratifies this memorandum?” Mr. Katrougalos asked, while asking to know if Greece sent to Ukraine other weapons besides Kalashnikov.

The speaker of the Movement for Change, V. Kegeroglou, raised his concerns about a possible overlap of the objects of responsibility of the Center of Excellence of Souda with that of Istanbul. The KKE spokesman, N. Papanastasis, stressed that NATO and the defense of sovereign rights do not exist together. He also noted that the Center of Excellence is “another involvement of Greece in its contribution to the creation of NATO infrastructure.” The speaker of the Hellenic Solution A. Mylonakis, citing a newspaper article, asked how many times, and what weapons systems and ammunition we sent to Ukraine. The speaker of MERA25 noted that the sanctions of the memoranda do not consolidate either national or European security architecture. NATO, he said, has an aggressive orientation and it “expresses itself today with what is happening in Ukraine.”