The incident with the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the state plane, which happened literally at the Tripoli airport, reminded me of the story at the same airport 38 years ago. Envoy to Libya during the special and special relations between Greece and Libya. The following text is an appropriately formatted excerpt from the Libyan Diary 1982-1984, from my book Visions and Chimeras (published by I. Sideris):

June 1984 The minister’s office informs me that I must visit the embassy’s crypto communications center. Then we had the so-called teletypes and encryption codes. On another crypto-teletype line in Athens, the diplomat-director of a powerful minister. The message starts to appear. “Top secret. Only you will know. No one at the embassy. In the afternoon, a special flight with a military plane arrives at the airport. You will take care of the pickup. Complete confidentiality …”.

What now, I say to myself. Who goes; Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou and Foreign Minister Karolos Papoulia immediately came to mind, who had already secretly visited Tripoli as part of the Greek mediation between M. Gaddafi and Francois Mitterrand in Chad. I’m immediately heading to the Libyan Ministry of Foreign Affairs. They had no idea. They were also not notified by the Libyan embassy in Athens. Not knowing the passenger, I limit myself to saying that this is an important mission that must be kept secret. Efforts are fruitless. I adhere to the so-called military etiquette. He had good organization and the right reflexes. It was headed by a colonel with whom I had good relations and mutual understanding. Everything is fine.

We are preparing a column of cars. We enter the airport through a special gate. Soon there will be a Greek military aircraft Hercules C-130. It lands next to the main corridor. Our cortege is approaching him. The big back door of the plane opens, the truck comes down. I ask the Greek pilots “who is he, where is he?”. “There is no one,” they answer. “We’ve brought the truck and we’re leaving.” The door closes. The plane returns to Athens.

In the end, the visitor turned out to be an empty Greek-made military truck. Abandoned on an airport runway. He was seen for months by those who left and those who arrived at Tripoli airport. In the end, the top secret mission was not what I expected. Some decided and sent the Hellenic Vehicle Industry Leonidas military truck for testing by the Libyan army. Who colluded with whom? I can’t remember how many times we asked to be moved to a more secluded location. It was taken in September 1984, a few days before the official visit of Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou. This “top secret” and secret mission ended up being a war machine and I’m not sure if it ever made it back to Greece. But I am sure that, unfortunately, it was never bought in Libya.

* Mr. Alexandros P. Mallias is the Honorary Ambassador.