In his post on Facebook, the Minister of State Akis Skrtsos explains the reasons and importance of the Prime Minister’s decision to assign his exclusive responsibility for protecting his Monument to the unknown soldier at the Ministry of National Defense.
As he says, the monument of the unknown soldier (us) had not yet been officially declared as a historian monumentwhich did not ensure its full legal protection. At the same time, there were multiple functions between different bodies – the House of Representatives, the Presidential Guard, the Ministry of Culture, the Municipality of Athens and the Greek Police – which often led, as he points out, “in inactivity and vacuums”.
Mr Skertsos stresses that today’s government decision:
- It transfers all protection responsibilities to the Ministry of Defense.
- It institutionalizes the monument to the monument as a space of “absolute protection and respect”.
- It defines not only the monument itself, but also the surface of 4,500 sq.m. In front of him, however, retaining the right to peaceful protest in the rest of Syntagma Square, totaling more than 25,000 sq.m.
- Maintains the Greek Police the responsibility for the class measures.
The Minister concludes by stressing that the monument “belongs to all Greeks and Greeks” as symbol and national memory, and notes that ‘it is time to leave it out of the political tug of daily life that creates unnecessary and artificial divisions».
In detail the post by Akis Skertsos:
‘3 questions and 1 answer to the unknown soldier’s monument
Do you know that the monument of the unknown soldier (us) has not yet been officially declared by the state as a historic preserved monument, with what this entails for the legal protection provided for any corresponding ancient or newer monument?
Do you know that the bodies that have a comparable one or another to protect the monument are at least 4? The Hellenic Parliament in which our hosts are hosted. The Presidential Guard of the Military Evzones who are responsible for guarding the monument but not the space in front of it. The Ministry of Culture through the competent Directorate of Maintenance of Ancient and Modern Monuments. The Municipality of Athens, which has the responsibility of cleaning the site in front of the monument. And, of course, the Greek Police to comply with order measures.
Finally, you know that the surface of the space in front of us is about 4,500 sq.m. And the surface of the Syntagma Square and the perimeter axes is five times as much as 25,000 sqm?
The three questions illuminate why to date we have not been collectively succeeded in achieving the obvious: that is, to protect with the necessary respect for the sacredness of us and at the same time to guarantee the constitutionally guaranteed right of all kinds of peaceful protest. Without being offended or tooling the integrity of the space.
Today’s Prime Minister’s decision is doing just that:
-It abolishes the multiple responsibilities that often lead to inactivity and vacuum of decisions, when the sacredness of the space is threatened, and transfers them all to a body, which is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Defense.
-Institutional, for the first time, the designation of us as a monument of absolute protection and respect.
-The monument itself as well as the area of 4,500 sq.m. In front of it, while at the same time allowing the right to exercise the right to the peaceful protest throughout the area from Amalia Avenue to the bottom of the Pl. Constitution, which is five times as much of us.
-It goes without saying that class measures remain under the responsibility of the Greek Police.
The monument of the unknown soldier belongs to all Greeks and Greeks as a place of memory of those who fought for the freedom of our homeland and those who unite us and must join us in front of the country’s existential dangers.
It is time to leave it out of the political tug of daily life that blurs and reduces memory by creating unnecessary and artificial divisions. “