The President of the Hellenic Republic Prokopis Pavlopoulos dubbed the continued detainment of two Greek servicemen in a Turkish prison in Adrianople “arbitrary”, during a speech in Alexandroupolis, Thrace, on occasion of the 98th anniversary of the liberation of the city and Thrace. Mr Pavlopoulos pointed out that Greeks always achieved great things whenever they remained united and focused and avoided division and discord, referring to the needed unity to defend the internationally recognised borders of the country…

“There can be no dispute about these borders. So there are no gray zones, he said.

Following the ceremony where he laid a wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier, the President of the Republic referred to the necessity of defending the unity to achieve Greece’s national goals, the readiness of the Greek Armed Forces to defend our borders at all times, the irrevocable and unambiguous defining the borders of the country by international and European law, as well as the continuing detention in Adrianople of the two members of the Greek Armed Forces.
In a reference to the Armed Forces, he stated that “Following in the great tradition of our brave ancestors and their struggles they [defence forces] are ready at all times to defend our borders, our territory and our sovereignty, which I repeat is the border and territory of the European Union itself “.

“In Turkey and specifically in Adrianople, two members of the Greek Armed Forces have been held for a long time, arbitrarily and in violation of every meaning of the Rule of Law. This arbitrariness of Turkey cannot harm our officers, whose morale is at its highest level, thus demonstrating what Greek army and Greek Armed Forces are all about”.