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This time the Troika targeted the military personnel of five years of service. Days before their visit for the next monitoring, the representatives of the Greece’s creditors clearly stated to the Prime Minister George Papandreou and the Ministry of Finance that "Greece can not support an army of 200,000 people". Uniformed employees are more than 160,000 and the total number of those who receive salaries from the Ministry of Defence exceeds 200,000 people, including the civilian personnel.

Since most of these employees are permanent workers, the military of five years of service, whose contracts have not yet fallen into this category, will drink the "bitter cup".

All who do not serve in combat units or do not have specialized skills will be subject to dismissals, despite the powerful opposition of the Minister and Deputy Minister of Defence Evangelos Venizelos and Panos Beglitis. "We will not allow the backbone of the country to be broken" is the Defence Minister's warning to all, except to the Minister of Finance George Papakonstantinou, with whom he is in close contact.

Greece’s auditors, however, say the country can not support two state administrations. The comparison comes from the finding that the number of the military is almost equal to that of the narrow public sector employees.

One of the solutions offered are voluntary displacements or taking on new obligations in civil defence or forests protection. At first glance, these activities may seem different from the nature of the army, but only it can deal with them in practice. Moreover, the option of voluntary vacating, which provides payment of benefits, is completely off due to lack of funds. According to experts, the preparation of military costs the state millions of euros, something which makes voluntary retirement a completely unproductive option.
 
The Troika targeted the armed forces after it became clear that double the real amount for the purchase of military systems have been introduced in the 2011 budget. The report of Ethnos newspaper, which made the disclosure, has taken the Defence Minister and his Deputy to the Prime Minister’s office.

George Papandreou ordered restructuring to be carried out as soon as possible as more than 300 units with enormous expenditures are supported in favour of petty partisan interests.

On the other hand, it appears that the Troika makes no complaint over to the number of policemen, firemen and coastguards. The only objection of the representatives of the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund is on the allocation of the staff.

Sending the military away from the "first line" is what makes the need for new appointments but Greece’s creditors do not want to hear about them. They emphasize the need for relocation of personnel to production activities, to which paperwork could be also added.

The issue is to be discussed by the Council of Ministers. The fact that meetings with the leaders of the three military authorities were held yesterday is indicative. Each day that passes, the military understand that they too must adapt to the new realities. And because this is a sensitive issue for a country like Greece, all processes are shrouded in the mist of mystery, as far as possible.

Military appointments with five years of service were aimed at decreasing the regular service and at forming a professional army. Here, however, as was the case with many other things in Greece, newcomers not only did not contribute to the expansion of the army activities, but allowed the old employees to remain in their ranks without carrying out any activity. Recently, the Vice President of the Greek government Theodoros Pangalos pointed out this paradox, causing the sharp reaction of Defence Minister Evangelos Venizelos in support of the military.