Moment of truth
Sir: May I use your columns to congratulate Mrs Helen Vlachos on her medal of honour, awarded to her last week by the Foreign Press Association in Amsterdam 'for her fight for the restoration of press freedom in Greece'? In- deed, since the junta seized power, Mrs Vlachos has been a courageous and consistent fighter for democracy in Greece. As regards her extremely interesting article in your issue of 11 October, allow me to stress only one point of slight disagreement with Mrs
Vlachos. She writes: 'Every time the colonels are worried about their security they drive them [the NATO tanks] round the streets of Athens, just to show off exactly what NATO tanks are for. Should not somebody remind them that the frontiers of Greece are not around Syntagma Square?'
I would like to point out that the colonels are making very good use of the NATO tanks. They use them against the Greek democratic people in order to keep themselves in power and with the full knowledge and approval of the Pentagon.
After all, the territorial frontiers of Greece are not under any threat. The only country threatening Greece because of the Cyprus dis- pute—Turkey—seems to have calmed down for the time being.
The frontiers which are threatened are those of the military dictatorship. They are under a mounting threat not only in Syntagma Square but all over Greece, because the fight against the junta is spreading all the time, and an 'explosion of unknown magnitude'—to use Mrs Vlachos's own words—will eventually bury the colonels and their government.
Let us hope that Mrs Vlachos and all Greek democrats will work closely together to bring about such a successful explosion.
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