The military parade on March 25 will take place us usual at Syntagma Square in front of the Greek Parliament in downtown Athens. The parade will take place in compliance with pandemic protection measures, media report on Thursday.
Two parades, the one on 25 March and the one on 28. October, were cancelled in 2020, due to the outbreak.
Is the situation better this year? Hardly. But prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said anyway today that restrictions will be stricter or relaxed depending on the epidemiological data.
Apparently in this context, the government decided to allow the parade due to the 200th anniversary of the Greek Revolution of 1821.
In the context of the specific celebration, the government has reportedly also sent invitations to Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Emmanuel Macron and Prince Charles of the United Kingdom.
None of the VIP guests has reportedly rejected the invitation.
This move has a symbolic character, as Russia, France and UK were the three “big powers” that supported Greece in the historic naval Battle of Navarino ( Oct 20 1827) against the Ottoman Empire.
According to state broadcaster ERT, at least the French are eager to attend the parade, and also have Rafale fighter jets join the fighter jets of Greek Air Force performing in the Athens sky.
Onalter website reports that 4 Rafale of L’Armee de l’Air and US F-15 that will be at the 115 Combat Wing in Souda, Crete, due to joint exercise with Greek F-16, will join the parade.
On Wednesday, there were reports that the parade would take place in the Air Force base of Tatoi in northern Attica. The alternative place was proposal by the Greek General Staff due to the pandemic.
It is not clear whether also civilians would be allowed to attend the military parade but most probably this will depend on the epidemiological data of the time in question.
That was pre-Bolshevik Russia. Pre-soviet cancer. Russia then helped the Turks massacre Greeks in Asia Minor after ww1. Russia never wanted the Greeks to have access to the Black sea and provided arms to the Turks fighting the Greeks who wanted to liberate western Anatolia. Fast-forward to today Putin is a scumbag dictator that constantly seeks to undermine the West. Greeks who think this guy is their friend are poorly misled.
How are you going to have France, a major NATO ally along with Greece in a military parade with Putin who dreams of destabilization in Europe and hates the EU not to mention NATO?
Maybe invite someone from the US, you know the country which protected Europe from Soviet invasion for 70 years, post ww2? And restarted the whole continents’ economy after the Germans completely destroyed its infrastructure? The place where the Greek diaspora have done more for Greek interests than the left-over Kleptocracy has in the past 50 years? The country that helped inspired the Greek revolution? Just a thought.