Former President of the Republic, Academician and Honorary Professor of the Faculty of Law of EKPA, spoke at an event in memory of Spyros Mustakl, held in his homeland, in the Holy City of Messolonghi. Prokopis Pavlopoulos.

“In his homeland, in the holy city of Messolonghi, today we pay tribute to the memory of the “new martyr of democracy” Spyros Moustacles. A few days after the anniversary of the Heroic Exodus, which marked the highest and decisive moment for the success of the National Revolt of 1821 and, consequently, for the creation of the New Greek State, let us dedicate this event as a spiritual libation to the memory of the modern “Free Besieged”, who, in his heroic, but also martyrdom reminds us – and will remind us of eternity – that “the Messolongi are alive.”

“The life – and I use this term literally instead of the life – of Spyros Moustacles has been a consistent and continuous struggle for the defense of Freedom and Democracy in our Motherland. A match in which Spyros Moustacles, among other things, proved that this defense is not anyone’s monopoly. And, on the other hand, it clearly goes beyond political parties and political ideologies, because it is the main component of the existential, literally, features of the Greek nation on its thousand-year historical path, ”added the former candidate of medical sciences.

Spyros Moustacles was born in Messolonghi in 1926. He consciously chose a military career through the Evelpidon Military School, graduating in 1948. Solon – “start learning, start drawing”, as well as a saying that conveys the authentic meaning of Hopeful, according to Thucydides (Historiai, 1.70.3), “despite the strength they dare, despite the danger, they hope even in adversity.” And this is because long before his graduation, between 1943-45, as a volunteer in the resistance organization of Napoleon Zerva EDES, he took part – and repeatedly distinguished himself – in battles against Italians and Germans, that is, in the fight against fascism and Nazism. After the Liberation and the tragedy of the Civil War, Spyros Moustakles also took part, already as a lieutenant, in the Korean War, during which the Greek fighters wrote their brilliant battle pages.

In a dictatorship

“During the seven-year – genocidal, as “works and days” showed – dictatorship of 1967-1974, he turned against the conspirators from the very beginning and completed his anti-dictatorial struggle by participating in the Naval movement. He was arrested on May 22, 1973 and remained a prisoner in ETA-ESA hell, being tortured until May 27, 1973, when he was transferred to the 401st General Military Hospital of Athens, but without significant treatment there. His Family did not know anything about his fate for 47 days. The agony of torture from the cowardly and mischievous bodies of the junta left him for life defective. However, according to a fair historical judgment, he was given universal recognition as a “new martyr of democracy.”

He managed, after many attempts, to get up and walk, unfortunately without even speaking. But he, perhaps, did not speak with his lips, but spoke, and indeed “deafeningly”, with his irresistibly penetrating gaze, sometimes with the merciless “roar” of the martyr Fighter and, mainly, with his example, as the end of his life – April 28, 1986. The state, in minimal recognition of his contribution to the nation, awarded him the rank of lieutenant general. The recruiting center (2/39 Syntagma Evzones) in Messolonghi bears his name, and his bust symbolizes, through time, a part of his eternity. Many streets in all corners of Greece bear his name, precisely in order to “show the way” to future generations, how we must unconditionally defend the Motherland, Freedom and Democracy. Thus, Spyros Moustaklis became the “government debt benchmark”.

Hence the sacred city of Messolonghi, the birthplace of Spyros the Mustachioed, the modern “Free Besieged”, let’s remember the “Free Besieged” of our national poet Dionysius Solomos. I choose, albeit somewhat “arbitrarily”, some “fragments” from the Second Plan of “Free Besiegers” because I firmly believe that they express in their entirety the Struggle of Spyros the Mustaches and the “teaching” that he bequeaths to us through them: “All as one, yes, they beat, and you are like everyone else.” “Always open, always awake, the eyes of my soul.” “At full sail, proud and beautiful.”

I end by pointing out what Spiros Usyk teaches us, in the end, through the verses of Dionysius Solomos, paraphrasing, without changing its essence, the “eternal” quote of Heraclitus: “Machesthei hri don demon in favor of the law okosper techos”: This teaches us that that, above all, we Greeks, who paid dictatorships even with parts of our National Body, should know that Democracy and Freedom are “sensitive” priceless goods that, in order to “prosper” and “bear fruit”, they need constant and unconditional protection. This is all the more relevant in our present time of troubles, when Democracy and Freedom are threatened by new numerous and insidious – as if “under the skin” and therefore difficult to detect – enemies. In the face of these dangers there can be no complacency, no respite, much less any form of retreat or retreat. Competitive-democratic vigilance becomes in these conditions the “National Project” and the “Duty” of all of us. Forever the memory of Spyros Usyk.