The grand military parade held annually in Athens on March 25, to celebrate Greece’s Independence Day holiday and 201st anniversary since the start of the 1821 revolution against Ottoman rule, was held in the city centre on Friday.
The parade for the national holiday, which also coincides with the religious feast of the Annunciation of the Virgin, passed before President of the Hellenic Republic Katerina Sakellaropoulou and other officials on the stand before Parliament.
The military parade of the armed and security forces began with the nurses of the Hellenic Red Cross and a mixed team of rescue workers, while the legendary WWII Supermarine Spitfire MJ755 escorted by an F-16 Hellenic Air Force fighter jet flew overhead.
The 2022 parade also featured a first appearance of the new Hellenic Air Force Rafale fighter jets in the skies of Attica, the Hellenic Army’s newly acquired M1117 Guardian Armoured Security Vehicles from the United States, a military band to accompany the Evzones Guard and double flights by all Greek armed and security forces aircraft overhead, along with French Rafale aircraft that took off from the French aircraft carrier “Charles de Gaulle”.
In addition to the Greek troops that took part in the parade, a French Navy Guard of Honour without arms was present at Syntagma Square during the military parade, accompanied by an Hellenic National Defence General Staff honour guard unit.
President Sakellaropoulou congratulated the chief of the parade, the commander of the Hellenic Military Academy Major General Stavros Papastathopoulos for the flawless execution of the parade and also spoke briefly with French Armed Forces’ Minister Florence Parly, who also watched the parade.
The government was represented by National Defence Minister Nikos Panagiotopoulos, alongside representatives of the political parties and the military leadership of the armed forces and security forces.
SOURCE; AMNA
