The Greeks have clearly produced great personalities over the centuries - the Women of Zalongos, the National Benefactors and the Unknown Soldier should not let any Greek with values, in Greece or abroad, sleep well at night.
We, in turn, must repay this debt to those who preceded us and honored our homeland with great deeds.
The three threats today are: the demographic, the economic crisis, and the Turkish threat. Demographic, as the first threat, is a result of the fact that Greeks do not give birth to many children. The burning issue of low birth rate does not concern any politician seriously. The allowance given for each child is ridiculous and dissuasive to create a large family. Thus, Greece is declining. What must we Greeks do to avoid perishing like the Incas and the Mayans? It is simple, that only with many children is the population renewed...
What are we left with now? To give serious allowances for every child, to legislate tax reliefs, and to re-examine our trust towards "others", namely, the new immigrants who come to Greece. It might help, if we are wise enough, to accept culturally compatible immigrants to us, so that Greekness is preserved and continued.
The financial crisis, as the second threat, holds up well. After the crisis of 2009-19, came the Covid-19 pandemic. Today everyone is on their knees and the joy of economic strength has been lost. The Greeks seem to have lost the touch of Midas, which they always had. The price of meat rose by 19.9% and bread by 22.8%, according to Eurostat, over the last year. People in the streets, because of this horrible situation, talk to themselves!
Thus, the crisis continues and many leave as dish washers to Germany or to staff foreign universities. It is a fact that they will marry and stay outside the borders, they will be economically active, and they will grow old and die there. In order to beat the perpetual brain drain, great poverty must subside and new jobs must be created, which may then bring the much-desired brain gain.
Turkey, the third and biggest threat
Turkey (=militarization, Islam, strength) and Turkish expansionism, as a third threat cannot be further underestimated by the Athenian elite, as we saw in a previous article. The Turks keep an eye on the Aegean and its islands.
Already, they are changing or trying to steal its Greek history. They have started talking about ancient Turks. Homer is also baptized an Ancient Turk, as we saw in another different article, again here in Greek City Times. At the same time, even if Recep Tayyip Erdogan leaves the scene and the Kemalists take over, they will be no less dangerous. They are the ones who invaded Cyprus in 1974 and they are the ones who have been talking about Casus Belli since 1995.
The Turks seek our national extinction, and the American-bred chief propagandist Ibrahim Kalin considers today's Greeks to be Ottomans. Turkey strategically aims to go from “Blue Homeland” to reuniting the Ottoman Empire. The Earthquake Diplomacy and, ideas for co-exploitation of the Aegean, show that the country lacks a national strategy, when the imperialist Turkey, on the contrary, believes, what Mehmet A. Kanci once stated that "he who dominates the Mediterranean, dominates three continents".
Theodoros Kolokotronis and Ioannis Kapodistrias
The threats are real, even if there are no people like Kolokotronis and Kapodistrias in the country today – without underestimating the bright exceptions of military and political personnel. Both, Kolokotronis and Kapodistrias, were very important leaders for 1821 and its aftermath, to the point where one can claim that no Greek mother will ever again give birth to such a son. And both of them were great because they had the principles and the values that we have somewhat forgotten.
It is our turn to do something, individually or all together, for the three existential threats facing the country, but also the historical nation of the Greeks. Elections are an opportunity. Politicians who have not achieved anything for more than twenty years to go home. To emerge a leadership that will be able to deal with these three threats competently and at the same time all together as Greeks, as soon as possible, to meet again with the values and principles that Kolokotronis and Kapodistrias had.
Thus, Greece will be reborn culturally as well. In addition, the Greeks have a duty to stop the Turks, who march into the 21st century as if it were the beginning of the 19th, even with the sword if necessary (they must be prepared psychologically for war in the Aegean Sea, the Islands, in the Western Thrace, and in Cyprus). It is almost certain that in the coming years, the Greeks will be given the opportunity to do it in practice…
Dimitris Eleas is a New York-based political scientist and contributes to SLPress.
