Defence minister assures support for new National Guard recruits

The National Guard is a ‘second family’ and will support each one of the new army recruits, Defence Minister Michalis Giorgallas said on Friday following the selection of this year’s guardsmen through certified software.

Some 3,669 recruits are expected to present themselves while more will be selected from the registrations made by the recruitment offices. Among them are 290 athletes from the Cyprus Sports Organisation, most of whom are footballers. The vast majority are from Limassol.

The selection process was completed at the Christos Samaras camp in Athalassa, Nicosia and the 2023 recruits for the national guard were placed in various units took place.

Giorgallas reminded the public that this process was carried out though an online platform “in the automated, standardised manner without any external or other intervention”.

“The placements were made on the basis of the National Guard’s service needs and of course taking into consideration all the data and information that each of our recruits has entered into the electronic recruitment platform when they applied for enlistment.”

The new recruits will find out about the results when they begin their 14-month service on July 10.

The defence minister then assured the National Guardsmen that they will take all measures, provide every assistance to each of them to ensure that their adjustment to the new environment is smooth and their service is productive and effective.

He also addressed their families, saying their children’s service will help them reach adulthood.

“I want to assure the families of our conscripts that our effort will be for the National Guard to be a second family for 14 months, which will support and assist their children to move into the phase of adulthood.

“We will receive our newly recruited teenagers and in 14 months we will hand them back with a maturity and responsibility that will be useful to them for the rest of their lives,” he added.

Apart from the minister, the procedure was also attended by the Director General of the Ministry, Andreas Loukas, the Chief of the National Guard, Lieutenant General Demokritos Zervakis and members of the Parliamentary Defence Committee.

In his own statements, member of the Parliamentary Committee on Defence, MP Zacharias Koulias, congratulated the ministry, the leadership of the national guard and all the staff.

On the selection process, he said “it is a fair, objective system and what I want to assure parents is that the National Guard has a concept of the children it takes into its ranks.”

“There is a high rate of satisfaction with the requests that the National Guardsmen have made but most importantly the way they are placed is fair and objective,” he added.