Reply by the Deputy Minister of National Defence Giannis Kefalogiannis to a Timely Question about the understaffing of camps at Evros and Thrace

Reply by the Deputy Minister of National Defence Giannis Kefalogiannis to a Timely Question about the understaffing of camps at Evros and Thrace

December 9, 2024

The Deputy Minister of National Defence, Giannis Kefalogiannis, in reply to a Parliamentary Timely Question about the understaffing of camps at Evros and Thrace stated that "the military leadership is the one to decide where our force should be deployed in the Hellenic territory, so that the optimum deterrent effect would be achieved. Staffs are the ones that plan the deployment of forces throughout the Hellenic territory. Let's agree in this Chamber that neither you nor I are experts on this matter."

The Deputy Minister underlined that both the Minister and himself have repeatedly referred to the reinforcement of Evros and the Eastern Aegean islands that play a prominent role in addressing any threats from the East.

Mr. Kefalogiannis stressed that he has the honour of being a member of a Government that during its term of office, Evros has never "fallen". "We, as a Government, proved what Evros means to us; what a hybrid threat means. We proved what a threat in the Aegean Sea means. Therefore, don't hand us that story of "treason". And I shall ask the question again: Do we want our camps to be manned or not? We need to sort things in general, rather than having understaffed camps. I am not referring to Evros, but to 831 camps within our territory. We have more camps than the USA has in its territory. The Minister did not say that the entire Evros is understaffed. On the contrary, Evros is reinforced both in terms of human resources and in terms of weapon systems and infrastructure. I have been to Evros several times and I would like to ask you this: Is the image of Evros currently the same compared to 2019?"

In particular, regarding the positioning of camps, he replied that for obvious reasons no further information may be provided in open session, and addressing to the MP for Greek Solution party Mr. Paraschos Papadakis, he asked: "Is the image of Evros currently the same compared to 2019? Is there the same fence, compared to 2019 that there was in fact no fence? Because you seem to forget all about it, in order to create impressions."

Concluding, the Deputy Minister stated that "at least as far as national or defence matters are concerned, let's agree on a common denominator; not everything is political opposition. Let's agree at least that this situation cannot go on. Some camps at Evros should not be understaffed. Our wish is to reinforce them. Are you against it? I guess not."