Minister of National Defence Nikos Dendias attends the commemoration celebrations for the 81st anniversary of the 5th October Uprising and the Liberation of Karpathos

Minister of National Defence Nikos Dendias attends the commemoration celebrations for the 81st anniversary of the 5th October Uprising and the Liberation of Karpathos

November 30, 2025

The Minister of National Defence Nikos Dendias, representing the President of the Hellenic Government, attended today, 30 November 2025, the commemoration celebrations for the 81^stanniversary of the 5^thOctober Uprising and the Liberation of Karpathos in 1944, held at the Old Parliament House in Athens.

In his address Mr. Dendias stated:

"Ladies and Gentlemen,

I want to be frank with you. It is a great honour for me to be in this chamber, a historical chamber for Hellenism, the chamber of the Old Parliament House, a place closely connected to Greek History and its important decisions.

I think, Mr. President, that choosing this place to commemorate the 81^stanniversary of the Uprising and the Liberation of Karpathos is the proper and fitting thing to do.

To restore, that is, in both the collective and individual memory, of each and every one of us, an event which is integrated into the nucleus of modern Greek history, into Hellenism's progress of fulfilment with the Liberation of the Dodecanese.

My originand birthplace, as you know, are on the other side, the western part of Greece. I think that anyone, no matter how far they may be from Karpathos, would easily understand, by a simple glance at the map of the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean, the strategic importance of the location of Karpathos and Kasos, of course.

Moreover, I think that it is absolutely understandable why invaders, throughout the years, Mussolini's Italy being the latest, attempted to corrupt the Greek character of Karpathos, as well as of many other islands.

The latter - the attempt of Italians of another era of course - to corrupt the Greek character of a place, also concerns my own home island, Corfu.

The October 5^thUprising was the expression of an existing perception. The perception of Karpathos' islanders for Union; uniting with mother Greece. On 17 October, when the Blue and White flag, our flag, was hoisted on Mt. Olympos and the other villages of Karpathos, we arrive at the fulfilment of the historical hope that the Dodecanesians and the Karpathians had, for union with mother Greece.

Nonetheless, Karpathos was the first part of Hellenism to be liberated, should one consult the timeline. Thus is marked, the reintegration, the course to the reintegration of the Dodecanese in the National Branch. It was not a simple course, nor an obvious success, and it was the result not only of the Dodecanesians' struggle, but also of the great effort by a Civil War-torn Hellenism which led to the Integration in 1948.

I return to the present. Since, for Hellenism, today is as important as yesterday.

I am referring to what I already mentioned and you already know, the special geopolitical location of Karpathos. Ladies and Gentlemen, we ought to have a clear position and a clear understanding, regardless of our interlocutor and whichever interests and point of view they might have on International Law and the International Law of the Sea. Knowing that the position we express does not stem from the feeling of national interest, the interest of the Hellenic Republic, but it is a position which utterly expresses International Law and the International Law of the Sea, regardless of the person examining this particular case and expressing an opinion on legal validity.

Article 121, par. 2 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, for which we use the acronym UNCLOS, decrees that islands, - regardless of size, I repeat regardless of size - are entitled to territorial waters, a territorial sea, an Exclusive Economic Zone, and a Continental Shelf.

Any counterargument, whichever its provenance may be, is a completely mistaken one.

Some states may claim, one of them being our neighbouring Türkiye, that they have not co-signed the UNCLOS, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. However, the answer to this weak argument is that the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea - as the former President of the Republic, who is present today, teaches - does not only bind its signatories. It exactly constitutes and expresses National Law, and binds everyone. Be they signatories of the Convention or not.

Consequently, this unreasonable and novel claim by our neighbouring state, that the islands of the Eastern Aegean, the Dodecanese being among them, sit on the Continental Shelf of the Asiatic shore, can only be viewed as an element of irrationality.

In a few days, the day after tomorrow, I am visiting Japan. As you well know, Japan is an island nation. If this perception of our neighbouring country were true, then Japan would be in the uncomfortable position of facing the claim that it is entitled to no Exclusive Economic Zone or a Continental Shelf, since it sits on the Asiatic Continental Shelf. You understand where the world would be driven, should all countries raise these weak claims of our neighbour Turkiye against island countries or archipelago countries, or islands.

I would like to say that for me, as a person, as a Minister in the last two Governments, but also throughout the time I occupied myself with politics, the broader maritime area of the Dodecanese is particularly important.

I will explain myself. I had the fortune, the honour and the opportunity, during my tenure at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to sign initially with Italy, and subsequently with Egypt, the sole two Conventions for the delimitation of Exclusive Economic Zones ever signed by the Hellenic Republic.

Sir, Head of Region of the Dodecanese, this second agreement, the agreement between Greece and Egypt, is an agreement which concerns the geographic location of Karpathos and Kasos, as well as all the islands of the Dodecanese.

We are faced with the following unprecedented: The utterly legal and, dare I say, exemplary Hellenic-Egyptian agreement is challenged by a legally not novel, yet unprecedented, fabrication of our neighbouring Türkiye, imposed upon the Saraj administration of Tripoli, at a time of the Libyan civil war, forming the inexistent, legally unfounded - or rather extralegal, and irrational arrangement of a Turkish-Libyan memorandum for the delimitation, the alleged so-called delimitation, of maritime zones.

Beyond the emotionalism brought about by the fact that the Hellenic-Egyptian agreement bears my signature as Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Hellenic Republic, I would like to clarify to everyone that, regardless of who rules the country, regardless of who is Prime Minister and who is President of the Hellenic Republic, regardless of any other relevant parameter, under no circumstances and absolutely no one is entitled to abandoning Hellenism's rights, granted by the Agreement signed between the Hellenic Republic and Egypt.

It is due to this very thing that I would like to repeat to all listening or deaf ears, or rather pretending-to-be-deaf ears, that there is not the slightest chance that Hellenism will tolerate the de facto imposition of the Turkish-Libyan memorandum. To accept, that is, the inconceivable claim that the Dodecanese sit on the Turkish or Asiatic continental shelf.

I constantly repeat this so that, under any conditions, our neighbouring country will not have illusions that they might find among us Greeks someone who would come to any form of agreement with them, on this legal basis.

I now come to the final chapter I would like to touch upon. Since I think I have already abused the time and opportunity you have generously accorded me, and which honours me.

When I was younger, ladies and gentlemen, at the end of the 2000s, I think we were all going through a collective misconception. When the Berlin Wall fell, when Apartheid collapsed in South Africa, when the "Good Friday Agreement" was signed between the British and Irish and violence in Ireland and the United Kingdom ceased. When the Oslo Accords were signed, creating a hope for the quick resolution of the Palestinian issue and the establishment of a Palestinian state, all this gave the impression that we would finally live an era where justice would prevail in international relations. What the Anglo-Saxons call: "Right makes might".

Unfortunately, what is actually happening worldwide, and we can observe it around us, is the contrary: "Might makes right". Thus, ladies and gentlemen, we are forced to acknowledge this international reality; yet not passively as students, scholars, researchers or commentators. We need to recognise it as Greeks, tasked with the constitutional obligation to safeguard and maintain our national space and rights of sovereignty and sovereign rights, as they have been handed down, as they have been formulated in our days, and as they should be handed down to the generations to come.

And I arrive at the centre of the role I am fulfilling today, that of the Minister of National Defence.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The country has established a New Deterrence Doctrine. Nevertheless, in order for the New Deterrence Doctrine to work, it has to be capable of deterrence. In order to achieve exactly this, we have come up with an Agenda of total reform of the Armed Forces, of which you may have heard, the "2030 Agenda".

Among the elements of this great reform of the Armed Forces there is a different consideration insofar as the defence of the maritime, submarine, and aerospace of our country are concerned, and of the Eastern Aegean in particular.

This new consideration treats the Aegean as a sea which is not defended solely by the Hellenic Navy, as was the case throughout the long Greek history. But the defence of the Aegean area is tasked to rocket Artillery.

Thus, a great part of the Fleet is freed, especially the new Units we will acquire. In a few days I will have the opportunity to receive the first Belharra frigate, in France, and witness hoisting the Greek flag on its mast. It will free up "Kimon", the coming French Belharra and Italian Bergamini frigates we will acquire, from the territorial need to limit themselves to the defence of the Aegean, and it will allow them to carry the strategic armaments which we have redesigned (the new European long range ELSA missiles). Thus rid of the role of territorial defence, the ships are at liberty to operate freely as deterrence forces, in the broader area of the Eastern Mediterranean.

The same applies to the airspace of the Aegean, ladies and gentlemen. Heretofore, our mightiest anti-aircraft weapon is our Air Force. However, we also liberate our Air Force from territorial defence, and the 4^thand 5^thgeneration aircraft, which carry and shall carry strategic missiles, will be capable of functioning as deterrence forces, having meanwhile entrusted the defence of our airspace to new missile systems, which we will partly acquire and partly develop.

We have developed the so called "Achilles' Shield". And we have named it "Achilles' Shield" since, for those of you who still remember mythology, Achilles' shield was his second one, not the one Hector took when he killed Patroclus, but the one delivered to him by Thetis. It is at this very point in the Iliad, when Achilles becomes a moral personality for the first time. Weirdly enough Hector was presented as a moral personality by the Iliad hitherto. The motto of the Ministry of National Defence "To fight for our Fatherland", albeit written in Greek in the Iliad, is spoken by Hector. "One omen is the best, to fight for our Fatherland". However, the moment Achilles takes his shield, he is warned by Thetis. She tells him that if he avenges Patroclus he will die. It is at this point that Achilles considers the honours due to his slain friend more important than a life he would deem dishonourable.

It is therefore, this five layered "Achilles' Shield" that we chose to symbolise the new element of the defence of Hellenism. Since we are laying a five-fold layer on our Country's defence. An anti-missile shield, an anti-aircraft shield, an anti-drone shield, a maritime defence shield, as I already mentioned with the rocket Artillery, and a shield defending the undersea of the Aegean, which will also be armoured by 2030.

I thus believe, ladies and gentlemen, that I have proven to you that we can stand proudly as historical interlocutors with the wartime generation, insofar as the defence of our national interest is concerned. And that we can reassure, in all frankness and from our heart, all those who fought for the Fatherland in World War II and the National Resistance, that our own generation will also fulfil its duties to History and the Nation. We will maintain the Hellenic territory free, and create and maintain those conditions which will allow the Greek people to decide the future of their land, sovereign throughout time, without the fear of a foreign threat.

The Minister was introduced by the President of the Association of Worldwide Karpathians, Professor of Surgery at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Ioannis Karaitianos.

The event was also attended by MP Sophia Voultepsi, as representative of the Speaker of Parliament, the former President of the Hellenic Republic Prokopios Pavlopoulos, the Archimandrite Christodoulos Samaras, as representative of the Ecumenical Patriarch, the Archimandrite Nektarios Karsiotisas representative of the Archbishop of Athens, and the Deputy Minister of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Kostas Katsafados.

On behalf of the military leadership, the event was attended by the Chief/HAGS, Lieutenant General Georgios Kostidis, as representative of the Chief/HNDGS General Dimitrios Choupis, the Rear Admiral Pierros KontodiosHN, as representative of the Chief/HNGS, and the Major General (HAF-ret.) Diamantis Sourrisas representative of the Chief/HAFGS.

Also in attendance were the MPs Ioannis Pappas, Georgios Nikitiadis, Theodoros Dritsas, the Deputy Head of Region for Pireaus Stavros Voidonikolas, as representative of the Head of Region of Attica, the Prefect of Karpathos - heroic isle of Kasos Kalliopi Nikolaidou, the President of the Municipal Council of Karpathos Dimitris Konstantinidis, as representative of the Mayor of Karpathos, the Mayor of the heroic isle of Kasos Michalis Erotoritos, representatives of the Security Forces, university professors, Presidents and representatives of associations - Dodecanesian and Karpathian federations - clubs.