Konstantinos Konstantinidis – Amphiktyon
A spy is rarely born overnight. He is shaped gradually within a system that is closed, rigid, and for a long time unwilling to recognize the value of those who served it. Betrayal does not always stem from greed; more often, it is the final outburst of a long-standing internal rupture with the very system itself.
Many feel that they were used, constrained, and ultimately abandoned. The search for new alliances—even with opposing powers—does not always arise from ideological conversion, but from suffocation, bitterness, and the need to escape the bonds of military life. In some individuals, the attraction of risk, transgression, and secrecy also plays a decisive role.
After retirement, officers with knowledge and qualifications are often pushed into obscurity, with meager pensions and no institutional utilization. At the same time, they observe people without abilities or merit accumulating wealth. Then the tormenting question arises: if all this effort had been invested elsewhere, what might their lives have been? The “window of exit” opens, and temptation grows stronger—especially when external actors cultivate it. Only strong moral formation and philosophical education can halt this downward slide.
The sense of injustice is often intensified by historical trauma. For many, bitterness toward NATO and the sense of betrayal associated with Cyprus functioned as psychological catalysts. Thus, the act takes on the character of revenge rather than mere transaction; money becomes a means, not a motive.
The approach to the “enemy camp” is not a modern deviation. Since antiquity, exiled or marginalized Greek leaders sought refuge at the Persian Court: Hippias, Demaratus, Themistocles, Alcibiades. History does not vindicate these actions, but it records them as a recurring human pattern.
Recruitment attempts have always been—and remain—a standard practice of intelligence services. The vast majority of officers rejected them categorically; a very small number did not. Understanding the psychology of the spy, however, does not imply justification. It means recognizing that betrayal is not an isolated act, but the result of personal fractures, institutional failures, and historical wounds.
Some may believe—rightly or wrongly—that the leakage of plans belonging to allied organizations does not constitute betrayal of the homeland. All such considerations will be weighed by Justice.
No defense of the accused is attempted here. Espionage remains one of the gravest and most dishonorable crimes. Yet a crucial institutional question arises: what happens when a person is deprived of Greek citizenship? To which political community does he then belong?
International law prohibits the creation of stateless persons. The removal of citizenship without another political affiliation is not a simple punishment but a form of political mutilation. A stateless person is legally stripped, without full rights, without protection, without a homeland—a hunted being.
For this reason, modern states must exercise extreme restraint. Otherwise, they risk transforming themselves from guarantors of law into producers of human “legal aberrations.” And that is not a victory of Democracy, but its defeat.
(10 February 2026)
Amphictyon – Lieutenant General (ret.) Konstantinos Konstantinidis
Author, Member of the Hellenic Writers’ Society
