The armed forces taboo has been broken

One of the biggest taboos in the period since the fall of the 1967-1974 dictatorship and the restoration of democracy has been the military. The price paid by the armed forces, and the country as whole, for the April 21 coup and the Turkish invasion of Cyprus was huge. In the first few years of the Metapolitefsi, young officers and cadets in military academies were too scared to wear their uniforms in public, as they were often shamed or lambasted, as if they had some responsibility for the officers who brought down the government and their crimes. And because this is a deeply Mediterranean country, reactions to the military establishment went to the other extreme. Unionism became involved, the notion of discipline was ridiculed, and the process of rising up the ranks became a political matter. The military obviously had to be “put in its place” and contained in the limits of its institutional role. But it went way too far. 

Some prime ministers and ministers occasionally asked whether there was an emergency response plan for the country that foresaw an active role for the armed forces, beyond what our participation in NATO required. The question was usually asked in the framework of inquiries into what would happen in the event of a major natural disaster or an incident like an uprising at an island migrant camp. The usual answer was: “We don’t talk about such things after 1974 and there are, basically, no such plans.” The military leadership was afraid of being accused of overstepping its distinct role if it discussed or prepared such a plan.

The erosion of the armed forces’ role, however, has also eroded the notion of security, the security culture that is so essential to any serious country. Everything was relaxed – regulations, who goes where, what is made public and what is not – to the point of disarray.

It took 45 years for this situation to start changing, for the public to start regarding the armed forces as an intrinsic and important part of Greek society and to accept their role. The period during the SYRIZA and Independent Greeks coalition, oddly, contributed to this shift. Because of their partnership with the nationalist party, the leftists had to adopt a different stance toward the military, occasionally with a good deal of hyperbole. What it did do, though, was break the taboo. 

We then saw in practice that the state cannot get very far without strong armed forces, which feel confident and have the support of society. The picture in the Aegean and the East Mediterranean would be very different today if it weren’t for the work of the Hellenic Navy and its antiquated fleet. The Evros border would not have held without the army. The majority of Greeks know this, feel this, and they are grateful.

Now we need that shift in society’s stance to evolve into a solid security culture and a radical overhaul of the entire defense sector – with clear boundaries and free of publicity stunts and personal ambitions.