President visits peacekeepers
Greek President Karolos Papoulias is proof of the old saying that the natives of Ioannina are the «first in letters, arts and armaments.» At the Petrohorio army camp in Xanthi on Monday, the president, who was a champion high jumper and played volleyball, not only reviewed the tanks during a regular exercise with real ammunition, but he also donned a radio officer’s uniform to board a Leopard tank from which he fired five shots. He is the first political leader in Greece to show a preference for tanks; most politicians like to fly in F-16 fighter jets. Though a lawyer by profession, who became foreign minister and deputy defense minister, the president has the stature of a man of arms, true to his Ioannina heritage.
