tary oicers81. A signiicant case in point regarding this new direction for the military was the “Callimachus” crowd suppression exercise, which took place on 3-4 February 2012 in the area of Argyroupoli, Kilkis. Again involving soldiers serving in the “PONTOS” 71st Airborne Brigade, the exercise rehearsed military operations to suppress demonstrations and civilian crowds in residential districts. As part of the exercise, which was video-recorded and posted online, professional soldiers dressed in riot police uniforms with full gear faced other soldiers acting as violent demonstrators, while army oicers threw Molotov cocktails at them. In a country where the military dictatorship of 1967 to 1974 has remained vivid in collective memory, the democratic relexes of Greek public opinion proved to be alive and kicking. According to a question posed in Parliament by the Communist Party, “this exercise continued similar previous exercises. More speciically, on 13 March 2002 in Veria, on 13-15 June 2006 in Papagos, on 29 July 2009 in Nea Peramos, Attica, on 7-10 January 2011 in Polygyros, Chalkidiki, and on 31 March 2010 in Kosovo”.82 Then Defence Minister Panos Beglitis replied that he had no knowledge of these incidents, adding that “the government and the Ministry would never acquiesce to exercises related to the internal socio-economic situation of the country”. Then government spokesperson Georgios Petalotis said that this was an ordinary exercise, aiming at “preventing crises, separating conlicting forces, stabilizing, rebuilding and assisting humanitarian operations”.83 As we saw above, several months later, but in any case during Beglitis’ incumbency, the dismissal of Frangoulis Frangos and many other members of the Government Council of Foreign Afairs and Defence (KYSEA) was connected with the “Callimachus” exercise, about which at least a part of the relevant political authorities seemed to have known nothing. As for the military authorities, the Armed Forces General Staf oicially refuted the allegations, saying that the exercise in question had to do with “separating conlicting parties”. In one of his speeches, the 596 Battalion Commander revealed that because of the country’s participation in the Euro Army, the Hellenic Army has been obligated since spring 2011 to maintain two platoons for crowd suppression. Besides its “national” missions, the 71st Airborne Brigade is trained, evaluated and prepared to detach forces to the Balkan Battle Group (ΗELEBROC) and the NATO Response Force (NRF), which, according to new NATO doctrine decided during the Lisbon Summit, may intervene in national territories in order to protect the social and political regime wherever social unrest poses a special danger for it.84 Despite eforts to downplay the issue, the incident in Kilkis was discussed widely for several days. It is telling that during a Mega TV show, a special commentator 81. 82. 83. 84. 70 | Cf. “Commandos against workers”, Eletherotypia newspaper, 4 April 2013, http://www. enet.gr/?i=arthra-sthles.el.columns&id=354910. See “A military exercise-demonstration for combating demonstrators and suppressing human crowds, in Arguroupoli, Kilkis”, www.kke.gr, 2 August 2011. Cf. “The Army is being trained to suppress demonstrators”, tvxs.gr, 10 February 2011. See http://diktiospartakos.blogspot.gr/2011/02/blog-post_09.html. ROSA LUXEMBURG STIFTUNG