Giorgos Karampelias: A dash or a Marathon? – Mitsotaki’s contradiction

Recently, a good friend asked us to be more patient with the government’s tactics in dealing with Turkish aggression. He even argued that this is not a 100-meter dash, but a marathon and therefore we should not exhaust all our weapons at once. However, I believe that this argument should be read in reverse.

The Mitsotakis government is rather prepared for sudden “catastrophes”, after which it stays still and needs to take many breaths until it moves again. It is not at all fit, at least not yet, for a Marathon! You can run “hundred meter dashes”, such as the fence in Evros, the deployment of the Greek fleet in July, as well as the signing of the EEZ with Egypt, and then run out of breath.

In order to be a marathon runner, you need to have the specifications, that is, a comprehensive concept for dealing with Turkish expansion with multiple dimensions, historical, geopolitical, and military. In short, you must have the ideological equipment suitable for a long confrontation of decades with Turkish aggression, as it demands nothing more and nothing less than the submission of Greece.

It is indeed a long road race in which all your forces are mobilized for this goal and submit to it. You do not see it occasionally, as a “hundred meter dash”. Unfortunately, the current government, but also the Greek elites as a whole have shown profound inadequacy.

A government in paralysis

Their overall perception is inspired by ethnocentrism, “multicultural” cretinism, ignorance of geopolitical realities and belief in a parasitic consumer model. That is why they cannot systematically face the existential challenges posed by Turkish aggression and the tectonic changes that are taking place in our wider geopolitical area.

The lack of ideological preparation of the current government, even though it is better than those who preceded it, can not be hidden. At first it came to power without having a plan for what it was going to face, limited only to the reduction of the ENFIA property tax! It remained paralyzed for months, despite the intensification of migration flows, adhering to the theory of its predecessors that it is not prevented by maritime borders.

So t allowed arrivals to grow. Only afterwards and after Moria, VIAL and the other hotspots of the islands were turned into hell, provoking the violent reaction of the inhabitants, did they start taking measures. Thus, in Evros the government was forced to react quickly and decisively, “discovering” that migratory flows are also prevented from the sea. In other words, the government had to learn from scratch the basics of how to deal with migratory flows.

Ethnocentrism recipes

At the same time, having accepted the broad social demand that the change of 200 years from the Revolution of 1821 should become a great starting point for Hellenism, it tried to falsify it. Instead of linking it to the confrontation of Turkish expansion today, it turned to the fourth industrial revolution, to Gianna Angelopoulos’ Hermes scarves and ethno-nihilists scholars like Kalyvas, Kitromilidis and Hatzides!

And this at the same time that the immediate Turkish threat was growing. The complete lack of awareness about the size and direction of the problems will be demonstrated by the Prime Minister himself in his message for the anniversary of March 25. Not only did he not even mention the words Turkey and Ottomans there, but he claimed that the Greek revolution was made to turn the Greeks into “citizens”!

No forced Islamizations, no massacres, no revolutions, no Orlovian revolt, no new martyrs, no Souliots and klephts in the mountains. And yet, Erdogan had already promoted the Turkish-Libyan memorandum that literally annulled the sovereign rights of Greece, even outside Crete. Pushed, therefore, by the leaders, those in charge will undertake some “dashes”, praiseworthy or even victorious, but always under the pressure of the opponent.

A “dash” was the confrontation of the crisis in Evros, the signing of Eastmed, the confrontation of the first challenges of Turkey on our continental shelf, the EEZ with Italy and Egypt. However, the agreement with France will not have the character of a defense pact, instead it will leave the frigates out and we will limit ourselves to the (positive) purchase (?) of the Rafale.

Inferior to the circumstances

This lack of predictability and overall perception will be seen in the most solemn way in the key issue of armaments. In November 2019, the budget provided for equipment costs of 500 million euros, ie at the level of simple replacement of materials and the purchase of missiles. Therefore, in September 2020, the same government was obliged to submit an additional budget, with an additional 600 million for armaments expenditures, while a month later, in October 2020, the preliminary draft budget for 2021 envisages fivefold expenditure on armaments, amounting to 2 , 5 billion!

The fact is that despite this adjustment to reality, the government as a whole remains inferior. A fact that was solemnly demonstrated at the two EU Summits, where it literally won nothing! It delayed, instead of accelerating its ties with France, and above all it was limited to the phobic reaction to the new challenges of Oruc Reis, where Greece was and is obliged to react on the field. Instead, levity at the Summits!

We understand the fact that the Germans are blackmailing us and they have many ways to do it. However, Greece’s weapons are many and at different levels. Thus, against the orphan request of the Turks for demilitarization of the Aegean islands, Greece could and should oppose the request of the withdrawal of Turkish troops and settlers from Cyprus, since Greece remains a guarantor power.

Promoting this request would not only put the Cyprus issue back on a new footing, but would be a literally diplomatic super weapon, as the Turks have been condemned countless times internationally for Cyprus and no one could stop us from doing so. And yet, we insist on the ridiculous tactic of “claiming nothing” and continue the tactic of leaving Cyprus alone.

Political system ready for conciliation

As for the infamous sanctions, they have been in front of our eyes for months and can really hit Turkey hard where it hurts today, in its economy. This is the suspension of negotiations on Turkey’s accession to the EU and the suspension of the Customs Union. And two summits had to be held for the Greek government to decide on October 20 to raise the issue of the suspension of the customs union, although the Austrian prime minister has been insisting on this for months.

Not to mention the immigration scandal, where the various NGOs and the very-small Mitarakis, continue as if nothing is happening and the whole center of Athens is flooded again by Afghans, Pakistanis, North Africans, and others, not to mention the islands. And there will have to be a new arson, as in Moria, to discover the role of some NGOs. At the same time, of course, they leave untouched the large organizations of “Soros and Company”, such as Solidarity Now, closely linked to the government and the Municipality of Athens.

And how could it be different when a few days ago Thanos Dokos of ELIAMEP was promoted to National Security Advisor, who only a few months ago had proposed the co-exploitation of the Aegean? In conclusion, our government and the country’s elites as a whole react to the Turkish expansion, only if and when Erdogan leaves them no other margin through the aggression of his moves. We have a political system that, with some exceptions, was prepared for a conciliation and, if necessary, for some “fracas”.

A political system that is facing a struggle for existence, a struggle for life or death, for which it is not at all prepared. The Greek people, who were also unprepared for a long struggle, have, however, a strong resistance instinct, as evidenced by the reactions to the Prespa Agreement. The people should force the political system in general to change ideology and direction, in order to really become the “marathon runner” that Hellenism needs.