{"id":4651,"date":"2020-02-14T10:06:02","date_gmt":"2020-02-14T08:06:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/maniatiki.gr\/wp\/?p=4651"},"modified":"2020-02-14T10:07:38","modified_gmt":"2020-02-14T08:07:38","slug":"boosting-morale-at-a-time-of-repeated-external-threats-is-the-basis-for-a-safe-outcome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maniatiki.gr\/wp\/?p=4651","title":{"rendered":"BOOSTING MORALE AT A TIME OF REPEATED EXTERNAL THREATS IS THE BASIS FOR A SAFE OUTCOME"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

   A\nprofound and pragmatic knowledge of the reality of our relations with Turkey\ndictates a ratio of 3:5 in military equipment in order to secure balance.<\/strong> This\napproach had been the official external affairs policy of the Greek state\nregarding Turkey for many years now. At one point, before the recent Greek economic\ncrisis, when rumours about armament bribes were made public, politicians stopped\ntelling us whether this ratio was in fact still maintained. This was a time of peak\npolitical antagonisms and large amounts of money diverted towards political\ncampaigns, so that the electorate would change their political allegiance. Thus,\nthe expenses for the army became a non-priority, bribes and private provision\nwere increased, and the budget for the armed services, and mainly for purchase\nof military equipment, was reduced! Our arms industry, which had always been of\nlimited capacity, was used for cheap political and opportunistic point scoring.\nThe result was that our war industries fell into financial dire straits and\nwere about to be shut down!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

   Our neighbour did exactly the opposite. In\nspite of the many unstable military dictatorships that they previously had,\nthey managed to stabilize their political system, to put their economy in order\nin spite of the high inflation the plagued their finances for decades, and to\nindustrialise their country by building upon their strong rural economy and\ntraining the large manpower of the countryside. They also secured many contacts\nin terms of external affairs as equal partners with other countries, even with\nthose which are much more powerful and populous. Certainly, it was mainly through economic development, which was\nachieved through the stability of the political system, that the morale of the\nTurkish citizens was raised. <\/strong>Their politicians combined religion and\npolitics, and within this framework they attracted large societal groups, which\ngreatly benefitted from the 2-digit economic development increases, and household\nfinances improved in the long-term.Turkey developed high-efficiency war\nindustry projects, co-financed by high-tech European and American companies,\nand our neighbour is now able to deliver very costly military materials, such\nas airplanes, submarines and tanks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

   We\ninsist that in circumstances like the present one, boosting the morale of the\nGreek population is of the utmost importance.<\/strong> If we examine our past, we\nwill observe that all our sucesses were triggered by high morale: the 1821 \u0399ndependence\nWar, our victories of the 1912-13 Balkan wars, the epic of 1940. We need to\ndevelop the appropriate conditions for the \u201cleap forward\u201d. We need to get through\nthe present low point to which we were led by long-term financial breakdown and\npolitical antagonism. We have proved that during adverse circumstances in the\npast, we were capable of such a \u201cleap forward\u201d:<\/strong> the 1821 revolution<\/strong>\nhappened after the suppression of previous uprisings and the killing of many guerrilla\nwarriors by the occupiers. Our 1912-13\nvictories<\/strong> happened just a short time after the disastrous war of 1897. The epic of 1940 <\/strong>was achieved after deep\ndivisions, numerous military coups d\u2019\u00e9tat<\/em>,\nand the Metaxas dictatorship of the previous decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     It\nis up to our politicians on all levels to implement policies that will\ngradually help form a common point of view, a common ground and a consensus as\nto how threats against Greek sovereignty should be dealt with. <\/strong>If consensus\nis formed, then the necessary steps on the diplomatic level and the funding for\nthe necessary military equipment will have the public support needed, while implementation\nand success in these fronts will be easier to achieve. If we can all agree now\non a common ground, it will be much easier to agree again in future, when the need\nto find a point of common reference will rise again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

   This\nis the kind of news that the average Greek citizen expects to hear, so that\nhe\/she feels somewhat safe, when he\/she hears again renewed threats from our\nneighbour on the east. Citizens will be able to budget more efficiently, will\nuse their resources in the best possible way and will support our national\ndefence goals to their best ability. This applies to all Greek citizens, but\nparticularly to us Maniots, because in the past we have responded extremely well\nto such messages for unity and cooperation, using all the resources available\nat all levels. In the past, we have proved that we can put aside our personal differences,\njoin forces, harness talent, and ultimately find common ground in order to\ndeliver solutions for external threats and containing their effects.  <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

   Citizens and politicians, now is the time to\nreflect on the lessons our ancestors have taught us. Now is the time to take\naction according to their example. <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

   A profound and pragmatic knowledge of the reality of our relations with Turkey dictates a ratio of 3:5 in military equipment in order to secure balance. This approach had been the official external affairs policy of the Greek state regarding Turkey for many years now. At one point, before the recent Greek economic crisis, … \u03a3\u03c5\u03bd\u03ad\u03c7\u03b5\u03b9\u03b1 \u03b1\u03bd\u03ac\u03b3\u03bd\u03c9\u03c3\u03b7\u03c2 BOOSTING MORALE AT A TIME OF REPEATED EXTERNAL THREATS IS THE BASIS FOR A SAFE OUTCOME<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2020-main-articles-in-english","category-1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maniatiki.gr\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maniatiki.gr\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maniatiki.gr\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maniatiki.gr\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maniatiki.gr\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4651"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/maniatiki.gr\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4651\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4653,"href":"https:\/\/maniatiki.gr\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4651\/revisions\/4653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maniatiki.gr\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maniatiki.gr\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maniatiki.gr\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}