The Greek Radio-Television Broadcast Service

[Donnager]

 

[Donnager]

Statement by Premier Nikos Bellos on the 52nd Anniversary of​

The People’s Republic of Greece

​

“Citizens, on this joyous occasion of the fifty-second anniversary of our Republic, I wish to take a few moments to talk to you about the importance of all those things we have accomplished together. The task at hand is a difficult one, for one cannot say too much or too little. Some among you were alive when our nation exited the fire of the Second World War, only to be thrown again into an even greater fire – a civil war, a madness, an atrocity against common sense. And too many of you have been born only after the fact and stand impotent to comprehend the magnitude of those past events. Neither does modesty help; it will disappoint both groups since in extolling their efforts too little, those who fought to make our Republic a reality will feel unappreciated and for all those who did not participate in these momentous events, even that modest praise will sound as an unfairly great one. I shall therefore endeavor to speak the truth, as much as I am able, and I implore you to listen.”

“We Greeks have always been a brotherless nation. We have survived through invasions, occupations, slaughters, forced conversions. Brutalities upon brutalities have been heaped upon us. None, save all of us who are left, speak our language, or shares in our customs; and since the resurrection of our nation almost two hundred years ago, the burdens placed on the shoulders of the common man were beyond measure. The same things that made our forebears once great are now insurmountable obstacles. Our mountainous terrain once produced a Thermopylae, but in these modern days it only serves to thwart our efforts to connect our furthest towns and villages to the capital, to carry products to every corner of our lands. Yet to work our people go while the mountains gorge in our youth, working tirelessly to open tunnels, to lay down highways, and keep tracks safe. We lack the lifeblood of industry – coal – and had to make due with lignite; we have no hidden precious metals or any significant oil deposits; the only thing we have in abundance is hard work.”

“During the resurrection of our nation in 1821, our great-grandfathers fought to bring freedom to us. They were peasants and farmers and wore rugs, but took up arms against the oppressor and finally drove them away from our country. And then Capital formed in our fledgling nation, and the peasants and farmers who fought to liberate the country were left destitute to beg on the streets while a Bavarian King staffed the state with Bavarian ministers. Their children, our grandparents, fought to expand the state under a Danish King. We doubled and tripled the size of the state, we took Macedonia and the islands. And then our grandparents fought to take Asia Minor. All the while the common people awaited for equality and comfort, for their time to enjoy the fruits of their labour. Our grandparents were poor, uneducated, and died either in war or disease for a state that only cared to greedily expand as fast as possible.”

“Our parents, at the background of the Asia Minor catastrophe, faced the economic hardships of a capitalist meltdown in 1929, the rise of fascism and the fire of the world war. Those of you who remember the war days know the dire situation the country was left by the fascist hordes. Hundreds of villages had been torched in reprisals for partisan activities; dams were bombed; bridges dismantled; our rail cars stolen; our animals butchered. What little industry we had was taken apart and carried off, machines and tools combined. The Winter of ’41 took from us brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers; thousands starved while the Axis forces carried our food to Germany and Italy. Yet from the ashes of that war we rose, and we fought back; our brave soldiers resisted the invasion for two hundred and nineteen days before the German advance broke behind our front lines through Yugoslavia; and then our men took dinghies and boats to Crete, and from there to Alexandria; Greek battalions fought in El-Alamein and the Italian Campaign up to Rimini; and all the while the People took up arms and fought back to regain our homeland.”

“On those days, our People founded the Provisional Government inside gorges and ravines. Elderly men who had never gone to school a day in their life were taught to read and write; theatre saw the light of day once again; women were given the right to vote for the first time in our country; and public tribunals were set up to punish collaborators, black marketeers, traitors. Everyone fought because everyone knew it was their own freedom they were fighting and that a day without kings or masters was awaiting for them once the fascist beast had been defeated.”

“Victory came, but it was bittersweet. Despite the King abandoning the country for Cairo, despite the government running after the King’s heels, despite hundreds of Greeks turncoats collaborating with the invaders; the day came when the bourgeoisie returned to the motherland and expected things to go back the way they used to be. They expected us to bow and scrape before the King who fled, and work for pennies at the factories of those who sold us out to the Germans, the Italians, the Bulgarians. But the People had fought for four bloody years, and the People had sacrificed; and now the People wanted to be heard.”

“We fought. We suffered. For three years we dragged cannons up the mountains, and the blood of our people was spilt to determine whether a foreigner might call themselves King of all the Greeks. And when the Monarchists had been kicked out of the mainland, they turned to the islands and sought to steal the sea from under our feet, to keep us at bay by the shore. One bloodied landing after another, farmers, workers, students – everyone in our country – fought to reunite it. Who could speak too little of the beaching in Melos? Or the liberation of Crete? I will not delay here for these all are known to you.”

“It was only after the civil war that the monumental task of setting our country back to its feet began in earnest. While the world was almost a decade into the reconstruction, we toiled to win our freedom; and when we did, we found ourselves not ten, but thirty years back from when we had begun. Our agricultural production suffered due to the lack of animals and tractors; our factories had been stripped bare and what few coins we could rub together were already spread too thin to cover all our needs; we suffered, through times that made us wonder whether a day would come when this all would be worth it. And it is only through the sacrifice of many of you that we can now enjoy, in this 52nd Anniversary of our republic, a state we can begin to imagine we can one day be proud of.”

“It is not out of place to praise now all that we have made instead of all those who made it. By praising the state, everyone will be able to see it reflect in themselves, and take heart that it is through their own efforts we are here today.”

“We are a People’s Republic because we know that representatives who don’t come from the people cannot possibly speak for the people. While liberal democracies elect parties with lists of pre-selected candidates by some party apparatus, we employ random sortition from a pool of willing volunteers to fill in our official roles, choosing each according to their specialty. We are a popular republic because we allow the People to vote on matters of state through referendums than carry the full weight of the law. And we are an industrial republic because we involve workers in the decision-making process in the workplace, sharing both the risk and the responsibility to make their business successful. We are, in one word, proud to look back to the Athenian example and attempt to emulate it as much as modern limitations allow.”

“Marching on in this new millennium, the state is strong and the people prosperous. We have invested in our comfort and our homes are simple yet elegant; there is no one in the country who is turned away from our hospitals; education is free for all; our borders are open, and people from every corner of the world can come and live here; our merchant marine spans the globe and allows us to taste the goods of other people just as easily as we enjoy our own; and our army, while mere reservists and volunteers, stands ready to defend our way of life. For all these reasons, it is with great sense of admiration that I wish you all a happy anniversary. Good night.”