Was there are military coup planned in 2011 against the government of George Papandreou? That was the theme of an article in the Sunday edition of To Vima which has literally caused a media war in Athens since one source claims it was forestalled while another quotes intelligence officials as saying that there was no such incidence and others claiming that it was all a cover-up because Papandreou needed an excuse to explain why he called for a referendum. So what is the real truth, and why bring up this subject now? Is it because the upcoming tough austerity measures want to place Greek citizens in the dilemma: Tanks or Austerity? Is it because the newspaper wants to provoke the notion that there is no political stability in Greece? Or is it because the hand of George Papandreou and the leftist "progressive" network is still at large? Keep on reading it gets pretty interesting.
"The military coup that never happened" was the title of the main article in To Vima's Sunday edition. The article reveals a series of events, as it claims, that led to the unexpected replacement of Greece's military chiefs. More exactly, on November 1st, 2011, the acting defense minister under the Papandreou government, Mr. Panos Beglitis sacked Ioannis Yangosm General Staff, Chief of The Army Fragkos Fragkoulis, Vasilis Klokoza -Air Force- and Dimitris Eleysiniotis -Navy. The article notes that the decision to do so clearly averted the coup, while it also speaks of its build-up months before with various military exercises, and a sharp and includes a suspicious -critical- description of activities of Fragkos Fragkoulis.
But here is where the reports start to clash.
To Vima says that the Greece’s National Intelligence Service (EYP) informed George Papandreou about the coup, but Ekathemerini came out with a report saying the complete opposite. “During its previous leadership, EYP never informed George Papandreou about the possibility of a coup,” said the agency’s current director Konstantinos Bikas. “Also, EYP never received information from any other authorities regarding such information so it could take appropriate action to defend the democratic system. The report on Ekathemerini also wrote that Papandreou had also issued a statement denying the claims that there as a plot to overthrow him, adding that the rumors had been rejected when they first surfaced last October.
On the other, To Vima says that those who held discussions with Papandreou at the time believe that his decision to replace the military leadership literally prevented the exacerbation of a climate of political destabilization in the country as well as at the same time prevented a coup d’ Etat.
As mentioned earlier the report sparked a lot of controversy but at the same time is quite suspicious. Panos Beglitis has refrained from commenting on it and we all know Papandreou is in the US playing the role of a teacher. On the other, the Defense Ministry, the Greek Armed Forces and EYP dismissed the claims made in To Vima, but so did Papandreou's political office. In fact the Ministry of Defense even sent out a statement saying: "The Greek Armed Forces was, is and will always be committed to tasks set by the Greek Constitution and the Greek people. The Greek Armed Forces will ensure and safeguard Greece's national independence, sovereignty and integrity. All else is unreal."
Even the Chief of the General Staff D. Kostarakos (Papandreou's choice), wrote on his twitter account that: "The so-coup last November was absolutely unfounded and insulting to the Armed Forces . We are the guardians of the homeland and not perjury."
So what is the real story?
Well we here at HellasFrappe believe the Chiefs were sacked because right after the event Papandreou left to travel to Cannes where the G20 meeting was taking place and he probably used this to explain to Merkozy why he called for a Referendum. If you go through the reports at the time, you will find an article in France's Liberation newspaper saying that Papandreou informed the leaders about the possible coup in what was obviously a stone cold Merkel-Sarkozy-Papandreou meeting. There were similar stories in other foreign publications as well. One more thing, in Greece we did not know why Papandreou sacked the chiefs, and at first we believed it was so he could politicize the Armed Forces, we only discovered the news about the coup days after Cannes' G20 meeting.
So how can we back up our opinion based on what the Liberation newspaper said?
We didn't have to, the military news site defencenet cleared it up for us instantly. featuring the testimony from one of the witnesses, in an article that was released one night before To Vima's Sunday surprise.
The article said that in mid November 2011 at around 19.00 three men, the then head of the Department of International Relations Mr. D.Chronopoulos Ambassador, Director General of Armaments GDDIA Mr. D.Georgiopoulos and a partner of defencenet.gr with extensive experience in military reports held a little chat. The discussion focused on the events which occurred one week earlier, when Papandreou and Beglitis literally decapitated the leadership of the Hellenic Armed Forces.
JOURNALIST - "Well, what happened? How did Beglitis arrive at this decision?"
D.CHRONOPOULOS - IIt's incredible, but it happened simply like this: The orange phone rang (secured line) and it was G. Papandreou. He ordered Beglitis to sack the leadership of all the Hellenic Armed Forces because the next day he was leaving for Cannes and he needed a reason to avoid the wrath of Europeans from his decision over the referendum. I asked him what he was going to do and Beglitis told me that he had no choice but to follow orders. I told him that this was a mistake and God is my witness I tried to prevent it. "
D. GEORGIOPOYLOS - That is what really happened?
D. CHRONOPOULOS - "Exactly as I described. I told him that this will hurt him politically but he refused to listen. Within minutes, he summoned for the four Chiefs and ordered them to hand in their resignations. Soon after the media began to announce that Greece had just "averted a military coup". This is the whole truth. "
Now wasn't that simple?
Why all the hype?
Clearly the article in To Vima has another purpose.
The article in To Vima also brought something else to our attention. It kept referring to the Chief of The Army General Staff and ex Defense Minister under the interim government of Mr. Pikramenos, Mr. Fragkos Fragkoulis. The author literally left it to be understood that this man -who is extremely well liked by the majority of the Greek people- is just too... "conservative", or too connected to the Orthodox Church (which is kind of an odd statement to make because let's face it... Where is the harm?). The author also spoke about a series of riot control exercises that were held in northern Greece before the sackings ever occurred and emphasized that Beglitis was never informed on this.
Why the hell would he make a reference to something like that?
Was it made to intimidate Greek citizens into believing that when push comes to shove -or when the austerity measures are being voted on- that the military will come out like the boogie man and begin striking at Greek citizens for protesting? Or were these references made to discredit Mr. Fragkos Fragkoulis?
Obviously, the author wants to discredit him.
Fragkoulis is a common sense man, and he is extremely well liked by the general population -HellasFrappe included-. He has great acceptance within the military but the general population also likes him so we understand very well why the newspaper attempted to discredit him.Besides, we have seen this all before. They used these types of "discrediting tactics" with former prime minister Costas Karamanlis. He too had greater public acceptance, and if you all recall, the Papandreou green regime -and its Western campaign organizers- literally deflated his fame in the eyes of the people.
This tactic is actually used politics and refers to personal attacks against a public figure intended to discourage people from believing in the figure or supporting their cause (see damaging quotations).
While a person may be insulted, and his political position subjected to question, the person so impugned has not been discredited until the allegations against him have been proved correct. Discrediting tactics are not just used against each other by opponents for office in democratic countries, but are also used in wartime between countries.
Obvious Conclusion - At first we thought that the article in To Vima was just another attempt by the "progressives" to strike at Greece's true patriots and that is our army. And the reason we believed this is because we have been following the recent "Sledgehammer" case in Turkey where tens of military chiefs have been sacked who were apparently involved in a plot to topple the Erdogan government. (check story on HuffingtonPost) But this is just speculation, and if this is the purpose of To Vima's article, then this will unfold in the forthcoming weeks.
So for now we will stick to what we know.
After going over all the information and especially the sudden "attack" at Fragkoulis we are convinced that it's just good old fashioned progressive leftists at work again. They have worked hard to discredit Antonis Samaras, have continued to slam Costas Karamanlis, literally abuse the Golden Dawn party on a daily basis, and are keen in destabilizing the country politically, economically and socially. This probably explains why a suspicious report was posted on the Clockwork Organge news site several days before, talking about chaos in Greece -and bloodshed- in October, November and December. (Click here to read that story).
Fragkoulis is a threat to these "progressive minds" because of what he symbolizes.
Stability.
The man is a patriot, that the people can rely on, or maybe even a future leader that they can base their hopes and dreams on. So he has to be discredited quickly, because this cannot suffice to all those foreign interests that want a piece of the action in our country and that would not hesitate in staging a chaotic situation in order to get it. Make no mistake about it, all those who bet BIG BUCKS that Greece would default would like nothing more than to see us 10 feet under.
Finally, the reasons behind the article in To Vima can also be seen from a much more simpler view. It could also be an attempt to restore George Papandreou's reputation.
And ... God help us if it was published for this purpose.
Whatever the case, and as we near the voting date of all these new austerity measures, the events will surely begin to unfold for themselves. Let us just hope that all of this is just silly rhetoric.
Before we end this article, we just want our readers to know that the Hellenic Armed Forces are the best product that this country has to offer. We will never allow anyone and anything to question their credibility because these men and women give us a reason to continue believing in this country and its constitution.
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