Leaving no man behind

I felt a sense of pride last Wednesday as the Greek state finally carried out its duty towards a group of our compatriots who died for their country. It took 42 years for the truth to come out but eventually it did.

In July 1974, a group of young men - most from an agricultural background - found themselves serving in the Greek Army's Special Forces. They received orders to go on a particularly dangerous mission without knowing their final destination or the kinds of risks it entailed. Their aircraft was shot down by friendly fire amid the chaos that prevailed in the first days of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus.

A lot has been heard and written about the incident since then. The most likely scenario is that it was a case of the kind of human error that is made in the fog of war. Someone failed to notify that Greek aircraft were on their way from Greece, or felt that it...