Officers, NCOs, Soldiers, Seamen, Airmen and Civilian personnel of the Armed Forces,
Welcoming the New Year, I address to you and your families a heartfelt greeting and my warmest wishes for health, progress and prosperity, for you personally and for your families as well.
Our country’s Armed Forces are a place where the principles and the values that defined our Nation’s course through the centuries still prevail and withstand.
They never stroke the flag of dignity and national pride.
The circumstances are really difficult. It is relatively important to wonder how and why we got here. What we will do from now on is what is important.
However, in order to move forward, we should re-discover our good self, remove all imperfect factors we were left with from our past.
Remake the state, rally the constitutions and cultivate among us relations of solidarity, union of hearts and national understanding, the key prerequisites so as to go forward vigorously and optimistically, responding to the legacy of all those who preceded us, but also to the demands of the younger generations.
Here, in this place, Greece of duty, honour and values still resists.
With your everyday practice, your important national contribution, despite the difficulties and the problems you are facing, you carry on fulfilling your mission in the best possible way, within the context of the Constitution and in the name of the Greek people, proving in this way that the Greek citizen can and should feel safe and secure.
The effectiveness of Greek armaments and the quality characterizing the personnel in the Armed Forces accumulated for one more year, through the multidimensional activities you have accomplished in full success, the admiration and respect, not only of Greek society, but also of our country’s friends and Allies.
Our national defence system is in capable hands, with proficient and proud personnel that perform their duty with dignity, responsibility and, above all, decisiveness.
The Armed Forces watch, they are at constant readiness, they are fully aware of their national mission and comprehend their public and national duty, defending our country’s integrity and independence and Democracy.
In 2013, an important effort was made aiming at further increasing our Armed Forces’ effectiveness. In an environment of high demands and obligations, we reinforced our defence capability and deterrent force. We reinstated and performed great national exercises and activated important weapon systems. We accomplished, it taking into consideration at the same time the current fiscal circumstances in our country and the State’s priorities.
Women and men in the Armed Forces,
In the new year the Armed Forces, always putting themselves on the frontline, devoted to their supreme mission, will function as a pylon for the promotion of the national effort for security and stability in the broader region of Eastern Mediterranean and the Balkans.
Have no doubt that the year to come will be much better. We shall leave behind all what displeased, distressed and troubled us, and a new, optimistic period for our Nation and our people will begin.
As far as I am concerned, experiencing everyday with you your national supreme mission at land, on sea and on air, I am proud to serve nest to you the great family of the Armed Forces, in the name of the Greek state.
I wish that the year 2014, which begins now with the Greek Presidency of the European Union that has set as key priority the European common security and defence policy, beyond the symbolism and importance our country attributes to it, will also be a year of peace, stability, social cohesion, growth, creativeness, personal and family success for all of you.
Many happy returns.
The Minister of National Defence
Dimitris L. Avramopoulos