Serving in the national guard is a “special honour”, Defence Minister Vassilis Palmas told new conscripts on Tuesday as he visited the Sergeant Lazaros Georgiou camp in Larnaca where teens were reporting for duty.

The minister expressed satisfaction with the “truly impeccable process” of assigning the new recruits a position.”

The enlistment process began on Monday and will be completed on Friday.

Palmas told the new recruits that “the opportunity given by the Republic of Cyprus to conscripts is a special honour if we take into account the fact that our homeland has been under occupation for 51 years.”

Addressing parents, he said that “for the next 14 months, their children’s new family will be the army, the chief of the national guard and the general staff”.

Parents too should feel proud, he said, “that their children have the opportunity to serve the homeland.”

During his visit to the Larnaca camp, Palmas was  accompanied by chief of the National Guard, lieutenant general George Tsitsikostas.