ATHENS: Greece will be “victorious” in efforts to break out of “encirclement” by its EU-IMF creditors, President Karolos Papoulias said on Tuesday.

“Our people is waging a struggle to break the encirclement of the creditors,” the 84-year-old president told reporters after a military parade held annually in Athens to commemorate the Greek independence war against the Ottoman Empire. “(Our) history guarantees that this fight will also be victorious,” said Papoulias, a former World War II resistance fighter.

Greece is struggling to emerge from a highly unpopular austerity framework adopted in 2010 in return for bailout loans from the International Monetary Fund and European Union.

The country has been mired in recession and unemployment.

Greece announced it intends to return to borrowing normally on financial markets in the second half of the year with a sale of five-year bonds to raise 1.5-2.0 billion euros ($2-3bn).—AFP