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Nikolaos Zarkadas*: HISTORICAL ANNIVERSARIES – “THE END OF THE CIVIL WAR”HISTORICAL ANNIVERSARIES “THE END OF THE CIVIL WAR”August 2019. Seventy years have passed since the most glorious day of the country's Armed Forces, August 29, 1949. On the day on which the Greek Army occupied the last fortified heights of Mount Grammos, defeated and thwarted the failed attempts of the foreign guerrilla forces to submit our Homeland to the illiberal communist regime.

For more than three years, April 1946 – August 1949, the fratricidal conflict lasted with hecatombs of Greek deaths and missing persons from both warring factions and incalculable material destruction. The countryside was devastated and agricultural and livestock production was completely destroyed. Villages were burned down and craft businesses were destroyed.

History teaches us that in Greece there have always been divisions and splits, which in the historical period resulted in a a fratricidal civil war, which had more victims than any other war our Homeland has ever fought.

Today, seventy years later, we do not seek, nor do we wish, to scratch wounds or to rehash the horrific events of the time, but to recall the historical course, the motives and the causes of the civil war and to emphasize the tragic dimension of a great human and national catastrophe. We must not distort or simplify reality and turn it into intolerance and fanatical political sentimentality and propaganda.

The generation that lived through the civil war and built a peaceful, free and democratic Greece is slowly passing away and is not her voice is now heard. Instead, voices are heard that want the maintenance of a gap for selfish purposes and as a means they bring back memories and hatred.

Every year at the top of Mount Vitsi and in the village of Vourbiani in Grammos, with the initiative, care and kind care of the E.A.A.S., a simple and simple religious memorial service is held and a laurel wreath is laid in memory, honor and gratitude to the fallen and missing of the civil war. Unfortunately, however, the state and political authorities are absent and only the Church is present and prays for the repose of these souls. For all the fighters of the civil war, who watered with blood
their soil of our Homeland, and the bones of many are scattered on the mountain slopes and ravines of Epirus and Macedonia "the graves of eminent men in every land", it is the obligation and duty of all of us to remember, commemorate and honor for the their heroism and pain.

Today, in a world that is constantly enriched with new elements, in a society that is constantly changing and at a very rapid pace, there is a way to keep our history alive, our roots and our traditions, to draw strength from the heroism and self-denial of those who sacrificed themselves and to move forward with greater confidence towards the future.

August 29 is not a common date of the year, it is the day on which the memories of the days of the civil war are revived, it shows us the path of solidarity and unity and urges us to leave behind and abandon the dividing lines of blood and hatred and the entanglements that lead us to sterile confrontations. It reminds us of the obligation to honor, rescue and restore the memory of the fallen officers and soldiers.

It is time to reconnect the thread and restore the historical reality of our nation. The history, which was written with the blood of the children of Greece, cannot be erased and silenced by removing the marble slabs “Vitsi” and “Grammos” from the Monument to the Unknown Soldier or renaming the streets and squares of cities and towns to serve ideologies and reasons of political expediency.

August 29th is and will remain a historic anniversary of memory and pride. The State should reinstate it in the historical and anniversary calendar of our Homeland. It is the accumulation of the desire of all those who sacrificed their lives on the battlefields of the civil war and those who are today struggling to eradicate the specter of war.

Thank you for the hospitality.
With Price
*Zarkadas island
Major General (retd.)