Ex Greek ambassador” Army promised not to intervene against a civil uprising

Anyone can claim anything in this country called Greece. If anyone can claim anything abroad, it’s even better. Then hardly someone can check sources or question claims verification. Former Greek ambassador Leonidas Chrysanthakopoulos claimed to UK-magazine Newstatesman, that “the Greek army had promised no to intervene against a civil uprising.” Predicting that broader social unrest was a matter of time, Chrysanthakopoulos claimed that there could not be a military coup such as in 1967 as the armed forces guaranteed that in the event of major social unrest, the army will not intervene.”

some excerpts:

Greece: “A promise from the army has been obtained to not intervene against a civil uprising” – Explosive revelations from former Greek diploma Leonidas Chrysanthakopoulos.

“At a certain moment, quite soon, there will be an explosion of social unrest. It will be very unpleasant,” Chrysanthakopoulos says, referring to 15 armed incidents in the previous ten days. In the past few weeks, offices of the governing parties have been firebombed as well as the homes of pro-government journalists. The headquarters of the prime minister’s conservative New Democracy party was machine-gunned, and days later a bomb exploded at a shopping mall belonging to the country’s second wealthiest citizen, although no one has been badly injured by the attacks.

“It is an escalation of activities,” he worries, adding that he expects the “explosion” to occur sooner rather than later. He predicts the spark will be when new, retroactive and sizeable tax bills come due in the coming months that people simply cannot pay. “There will be further increases in armed actions. There will be bloody demonstrations.”

“These actions are condemnable, of course, but I feel that this sort of armed activity will increase as long as the government continues to impose oppressive measures against the Greek people.”

…

There is some good news however that he hears from the contacts he maintains amongst his former colleagues and politicians. He is confident that there will be no military coup, as there was in 1967.

“There are contacts by certain politicians with elements in the armed forces to guarantee that in the event of major social unrest, the army will not intervene.”

“I don’t want to go into too much detail here though as it is a delicate issue,” he continues. “But as a result of these contacts, I think this is going to be successful.” (full story Newstatesman)

Talking about the dire economic situation of the Greek households, Chrysanthakopoulos claimed also:

” We even have problems burying the dead because people cannot afford the funeral expenses.” Refrigerators in the morgue were filling up with bodies until the church said that it would offer free burial for some families.

And he repeated for one more time, that the Greek government has hired Blackwater, the American private military firm infamous for its activities in Iraq, which now goes by the name “Academi”, along with five other international for-profit security outfits. Explaining why this has happened, he says bluntly: “The Greek government does not trust the police whose salaries have also been cut.”

Leonidas Chrysanthopoulos was a career diplomat at the Greek foreign ministry. At different times he was Athens’ ambassador to Poland, Albania and Canada, and finally the director general of EU Affairs in the Greek foreign ministry. Last year,  he resigned as secretary general of the Black Sea Cooperation organisation, and “entered the private sector, and now feels free to speak openly about his fury at what he says Europe and international lenders are doing to his country, ” Newstatesman notes.

PS  handle with care…