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In a moving Facebook post, the President of the Republic Katerina Sakellaropoulou describes the story of expat Evzonas Andreas Holevas, who completed his term in the Presidential Guard and wishes him “a good citizen.”
Her post is accompanied by a photo of her with her guard and two other photos of the 28-year-old expat from her tenure.
As Ms. Sakellaropoulou recounts in detail:
From a very young age, he heard the stories of his grandfather, Evzona in the Royal Guard at home in 1937. You may have been told about the heroism of the Evzoni battalions when they were combat units in the Greek army. Perhaps, as a child, he, like all Greek children in the Greek community, participated in national holidays wearing the uniform of “tsolia”, our national costume that refers directly to the revolution of 1821 and the struggles for national independence. The truth is that the 28-year-old expat Andreas Holevas developed not only the obvious emotional connection with the place of his origin, but a deep connection with the concept of homeland. In other words, he understood from a very young age that you only acquire a country when you become a citizen and that enlistment is an honor and not just an obligation. Born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to parents who immigrated to the United States in the late 1960s, cultivating the dream of being as prosperous as his grandfather as a child, he went through all the procedures to become Greek, obtained a Greek passport and in January 2020 presented to the Greek army.
He proudly wore the uniform of a nobleman and served, for nine months, in the Presidential Guard, honorably guarding the institution of the Republic. He lived the strict daily life of the well-to-do, walked countless times along the white road, symbol of the path of liberation struggles, from the camp to the Monument to the Unknown Soldier, attended the raising and delivery of the flag to the Rock of the Acropolis, lived all the time. intensity the symbolism that emits the maximum honorific procession of the country. The desire for a “good citizen”, in the person of Andreas Holevas who is currently fulfilling his mandate, acquires all its meaning.
Source: skai.gr
