This initiative, launched by Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nikos Kotzias, paves the way for the establishment of an annual forum for dialogue, aiming to deepen cooperation among the key players in a region plagued by security challenges and destabilizing forces on the premise that no single country can tackle the problems of this day and age.

This Conference will stress the need for collective action as it is imperative to act together in order to safeguard security and stability for the entire region.

The so-called triangle of instability, formed by Ukraine to the apex and Libya and Syria/Iraq to the western and eastern corner respectively, has adverse effects on the Eastern Mediterranean, the wider Middle East and Southeast Europe. The ongoing refugee/migration crisis, extremism and radicalization are indicators of the current critical situation in the broader region.

The Rhodes Conference is based on a political vision; to build stability and security via joint initiatives and synergies in order to avert fragmentation and bring prosperity and peace.

This includes the growth of relations and movements, which will lead to higher levels of interdependence. That is the building of academic and cultural networks aimed at overcoming stereotypes and misconceptions, as well as people-to-people exchanges – bridges between cultures – that promote understanding and respect for diversity.

In the same vein, economic cooperation in a modern globalized world requires synergies and connectivity in the sectors of trade, energy and transport;

Our will is to achieve positive sum cooperation, aspiring to remedy uneven development and inequality, the root causes of turbulence and hatred.

Hence, the agenda of both plenary sessions on September 8th and 9th respectively, shall define the current challenges we are faced with in order to forge joint strategies to meet:

• challenges presented by the migration crisis, including spiraling humanitarian needs, inadequate asylum systems and threats to social cohesion,

• environmental/climate security challenges, through programmes for education, capacity-building and knowledge transfer on measures to prevent marine debris and develop environmentally sound water and waste management systems,

• challenges to maritime security, including piracy, human trafficking, terrorism, weapons trafficking, overfishing, pollution, and man-made and natural disasters, and

• ongoing threats to the region’s cultural and religious plurality, including the root causes of radicalization and violent extremism.

The Rhodes Conference for Security and Stability will seek to highlight the vital need for states to show a real commitment and political will to deter all these destabilizing forces that engender suffering and unrest threatening security and stability.”

It is of utmost importance here, as in other parts of Europe, that reception conditions be adequate to the task. Without this essential element, the relocation programme agreed by Europe in September is in serious peril and may fail.

After the chaotic and miserable scenes over the past few days, borders along the Balkan routes have reopened. On the Serbian border with Croatia, some 3000 people were left waiting amid uncertainty in the rain from Sunday until late Monday afternoon without shelter, and with minimal assistance on hand. UNHCR staff and staff of our partner organizations provided what support they could at such short notice including food, water, and blankets. But many people, including the elderly, pregnant women and several physically handicapped people, were soaked through and instances of hypothermia were reported. There was similar misery on the Croatia-Slovenia border.

And while conditions are still difficult in some places and there is a backlog, movement has resumed, with 4,300 people arriving in Austria from Slovenia yesterday. Meanwhile, in Austria and Germany, tens of thousands of refugees and migrants are sleeping in tents and temporary shelters because of accommodation shortages.

In the Aegean, we are saddened by the recent wave of deaths at sea among people crossing from Turkey into Greece. 19 people have died in the past 9 days in five separate incidents, almost half of these over the weekend. Infants and children were among those who have perished. Refugees we spoke to over the weekend told us that smugglers are offering discounts rates for crossings in bad weather and packing more people onto boats.

At least 123 people have died or gone missing in Greek territorial waters so far this year (in all, at least 3,135 have perished in the Mediterranean to date in 2015). We are concerned at the potential for this number to rise further as people try to beat the onset of winter and fears of new border-closures. UNHCR urges that search and rescue operations be further strengthened in this area to reduce risks.

To address the current situation in Europe, various measures of stabilization are needed in countries of first asylum and all countries of secondary movements to reduce irregular secondary movements. These measures include strong support to countries hosting the vast majority of Syrian, Iraqi and Afghan refugees, an information campaign informing of the dangers of the sea journey, and the development of legal pathways to seek protection in Europe. In countries of secondary movement in Europe, significant efforts must be made to develop a robust reception and registration capacity in order for the relocation programme to work.

Collins was an assistant nurse in a military hospital in Douala, Cameroon. After two years of working without getting paid,she and her husband decided to head to Banki, in the north of the country. The town was captured by Boko Haram, and Collins and her husband were kidnapped and held in the bush. After a couple of months, Collins managed to escape with the help of an older woman and started a six-month journey that finally brought her to Libya. It was not easy, she was already eight months pregnant at that time and she was beaten while the women travelling with her were raped.

When the Dignity I crew found her on a rubber boat at 08:00 in the morning, her face showed she was in pain. Her labour contractions had already started. Astrid, an MSF midwife on board, helped Collins deliver a baby boy she called Divan. The delivery went smoothly. It is Collins’ second child. Besides her husband, of whom she has had no news since leaving Cameroon, she also left behind a two-year-old son, Warren, with her mother in Douala,.

After the delivery, Collins was transferred to the Spanish Guardia Civil boat that will take mother and son to Italy.

Source: MSF

Lindis Hurum, MSF Emergency Coordinator on the boat describes the situation:

“It was intense. I spent 45 minutes on our fast rescue boat, staying close to them and talking to them in order to keep them calm until the other vessels arrived to assist us. It is an impressive sight when so many desperate and frightened people are crammed on a boat like this.The boat was close to tipping over – at one point I really thought it would capsize. During the rescue there was a mass man-overboard as people jumped ship, but we had passed sufficient life jackets onto the boat so all the people who jumped were rescued and no one drowned. There were many women, children and elderly men. Afterwards, I went on the boat to check that everyone had been rescued. What a sight – the conditions in the hold were terrible and I still cannot believe no one died. They were very lucky.

We transferred everyone we rescued to a Norwegian Navy Boat for immediate passage towards Italy late last night. Already this morning [Friday 07 August] we have saved a further 128 people from a rubber boat. They were all ecstatic to be alive and safe. Very emotional scenes of joy, prayer and singing broke out once they were safe on our ship. We are awaiting a transfer of a hundred or so people from another boat, and then we will also make our way towards Italy.”

Source: MSF

She still relives the trauma of September 10, when an unidentified vessel rammed into the smuggler’s trawler that was carrying Doaa and more than 500 other people, including many women and children, who dreamed of reaching Europe. The vessel quickly sank off the east coast of Malta; there were just 11 survivors.

The young woman, who showed tremendous courage in saving one baby and trying to keep another alive during the three days she spent in the water before being rescued by a Greek vessel and taken to Crete, says she is even more determined to reach Sweden where she has relatives.

But her resilience and determination to survive and to try and save others has inspired many people in Greece, including the local authorities in the Crete port of Chania, were she was taken after being rescued by a Greek Navy helicopter. People there believe that Doaa should be given Greek nationality for her bravery.

“What she did – suppressing the instinct for self-preservation and trying to save two babies – is astounding,” said Dimitris Nikolakakis, a senior public health and welfare official in Chania.

Doaa’s story begins in the south-western Syria town of Dera’a, where she was born and grew up in a family of nine. But as the war escalated, her family decided to flee to nearby Jordan in 2012 before making their way to Egypt. Doaa was just 16 at the time.

She spent two-and-a-half years in the northern Egyptian resort of Gamasa, where she worked as a seamstress to help supplement the money her father made as a barber. But Doaa believed there was no future in Syria or Egypt and so she decided, like thousands of others, to try and reach Europe by boat despite the news of ever more horrendous sinkings and deaths on the high seas.

“Three thousand people have drowned so far this year in the Mediterranean. It is unbelievable that such tragic loss of life takes place on Europe’s doorstep,” said Laurens Jolles, UNHCR’s regional representative for southern Europe.

But Doaa and her fiancé, Bassem, went ahead and found a place on a trawler that was used to smuggle refugees and migrants from Egypt to southern Europe. Four days after the trawler set sail from Damietta in the Nile Delta, it was stopped by another boat. “The people on it asked us to stop. They threw pieces of metal and wood at us and swore at our captain,” recalled Doaa. “Our boat refused to stop and they circled us and rammed us. They waited until we had sunk and they left.”

The trawler sank in minutes. Most of the passengers were below decks. “Some people grabbed ropes hanging from the ship’s masts to save themselves. Some were cut to pieces by the propeller when they fell into the water. Most drowned,” Doaa said. “We were from Sudan, Africa, Egypt, Syria, some from Libya, some Palestinians from Gaza.”

Doaa found herself in the water with 100 or so survivors, shocked and bewildered at the murderous behaviour they had just seen. She grabbed a life belt and looked around for her fiancé. She realized he must have gone down with the boat.

For three days, the survivors floated in the Mediterranean without food or drinking water. They were at the mercy of the winds and currents – and gradually they started to die. “Some people died of stress; others willed it to happen,” Doaa noted. “One man took off his own life vest and sank. Some died of fear, some of cold. The weather was rough. It was cloudy and cold.”

People began to ask Doaa to take care of their children. A man with his one-year-old granddaughter handed over the child and Doaa put it on her life belt. “Then a mother came with an 18-month-old baby girl and a six-year-old boy and asked me to take care of the baby and I kept it too. I watched the grandfather and the mother and her son die.”

Doaa said the goal of saving the two babies increased her determination to survive. She was rescued by a Liberian-flagged vessel some 90 nautical miles south-west of Crete on September 13. “The one year-old baby died just as we were about to be picked up” and taken to Chania. The other child rallied and recovered.

UNHCR’s Jolles said Doaa’s ordeal and the number of people who drowned was yet another sign of the need to do more to resolve the problem of people risking all to reach Europe. “There is an urgent need for a joint European response, based on collaboration among states and European Union support,” he said.

“For the moment, an efficient rescue operation needs to be maintained aimed at saving lives, in absence of other available alternatives,” Jolles stressed in a clear reference to the Italian Navy’s operation which has rescued 150,000 people at sea since late October 2013, including many people in need of international protection.

Doaa, meanwhile, waits alone to hear what her future will bring after such a costly journey. She was recently moved from Chania to the Greek mainland and is staying with a Greek family as the authorities try to locate her family in Sweden.

Source: UNHCR. John Psaropoulos in Athens, Greece contributed to this story

Around 7,800 of the migrants and asylum-seekers arrived in Italy, while Malta received around 600, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Most of those making the journey departed from North Africa, principally Libya (around 6,700 people). The remaining 1,700 crossed from Greece and Turkey, landing in southern Italy.

Countries in sub-Saharan Africa are the main places of origin of these migrants and asylum-seekers, particularly Somalia and Eritrea. Other countries of origin include Egypt, Pakistan and Syria. Nationals of Gambia, Mali and Afghanistan also make these crossings, but in smaller numbers, noted UNHCR.

The agency has also recorded some 40 deaths in the first six months of 2013 by people attempting to cross the Mediterranean between North Africa and Italy.

“The Mediterranean is one of the busiest seaways in the world, as well as a dangerous sea frontier for migrants and asylum-seekers en route to southern Europe,” said UNHCR spokesperson Adrian Edwards.

“In view of the perils, UNHCR again calls on all vessels at sea to be on alert for migrants and refugees in need of rescue,” he said at a news conference in Geneva. “We also renew our call to all shipmasters in the Mediterranean to remain vigilant and to carry out their duty of rescuing vessels in distress.

“International and European law also requires States to ensure that people intercepted or rescued at sea who seek asylum can gain access to territory and to an asylum procedure where their international protection needs or claims can be examined,” he added.

UNHCR noted that the peak crossing period for migrants and asylum-seekers runs from May to September.

“At this time of year, when there is an increase in the number of people trying to make this perilous journey, it is essential to ensure that the long-established tradition of rescue at sea is upheld by all and that international maritime law is adhered to,” said Mr. Edwards.

Last year, some 15,000 migrants and asylum-seekers reached Italy and Malta by sea, while almost 500 people were reported dead or missing at sea.

Jean-Claude Mignon, the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), together with a PACE sub-committee visiting Greece, have urged greater European solidarity to help Greece deal with large numbers of irregular migrants and asylum seekers entering the country. They also proposed the possible holding of an urgent debate on this issue at the Assembly’s winter session in Strasbourg next week, in order to raise awareness among Council of Europe member States via their national delegations in PACE.

“Greece is confronted with a major problem of irregular migration at the very moment when it must also try to deal with an unprecedented economic crisis,” said Mignon. “But it cannot be expected to accept all the misery of the world on its own. Only greater European solidarity, be it financial or in terms of receiving refugees and asylum seekers, can really contribute to solving this problem. A shared migration policy is even more essential at a time when the region is facing major instability.

He added: “This is not just a Greek problem, but is above all a European problem. The whole continent has a responsibility to ensure that the situation in the Mediterranean, already difficult to handle, does not become an out-and-out humanitarian catastrophe.”

Tineke Strik (Netherlands, SOC), Chairperson of the sub-committee, echoed his remarks: “No other country could deal with this humanitarian crisis alone, given the current economic and social context, and the porous borders of the country. Since most irregular migrants want to continue on their way to other European countries, member States must come up with swift solutions that go beyond mere financial and technical assistance and show much greater solidarity.”

Both the President and the sub-committee warmly welcomed the Greek authorities’ determination to resolve, as quickly as possible, the major backlog of 50,000 outstanding asylum applications, and to close three detention centres that have been deemed sub-standard, including the centre at the Petrou Ralli police station in Athens, which is due to close in the course of 2013. They also welcomed indications from the Greek authorities that, from spring 2013, women and children will no longer be detained, and looked forward to this measure being fully applied as swiftly as possible.

For its part, the delegation expressed its deep concern at the systematic use of detention as a means of deterring migrants from entering or staying in Greece. “The recent decision to prolong migrants’ and asylum seekers’ detention for one more year, treating them like criminals, exacerbates their despair and vulnerability,” Ms Strik said.

“Even if there has been progress in terms of building new detention centres with better conditions, such as the Amygdaleza centre, the delegation still witnessed severe problems in terms of access to asylum, health care, information and the possibility for detainees to communicate with the outside world. Most of the detention centres visited by the delegation currently do not meet the standards of human dignity, as basic facilities such as heating, light and hot water are not provided,” she added.

Developing an economic, energy in this case, investment presupposes geopolitical stability and security. In the case of Cyprus, in order to sustain its economic collaboration with Israel Nicosia needs to address the role of the Arabs in this volatile region. In the case of the Syrian civil war, given that there is nothing particular to win or lose, Cyprus must pursue a neutral policy.

Along with the Cyprus issue, the case of Palestine remains for more than a century the top theme in the security agenda of the region. In particular the Palestinian case is an issue of Pan-Islamic dimensions, well-interwoven with Arab nationalism. Given the rise of Islam in Turkey and the Arab states, such as Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, Nicosia needs to develop a new policy scheme toward the Arabs in order to contribute to the stability of the region, aiming to facilitate further dialogue between Israel and the Palestinians. For instance President Christofias and Foreign Minister Marcoulli’s recent visits to Jordan and Egypt respectively are of particular importance.

Besides the solid outcome that such a Cypriot initiative may have in terms of diplomacy and security, it is also expected that Nicosia will win hearts and minds in the Arab world and Israel in a very delicate moment for Arab and Israeli politics. In short the current Cypriot-Israeli economic collaboration is a first class opportunity for Nicosia to amplify its political role in the region by working to bring together friends and foes. Cyprus is able to undertake such a task and carry it out effectively for the interests of Nicosia and the region as a whole.

Dr. Evangelos Venetis (The Middle East Research Project, ELIAMEP) is currently a Senior Research Associate in Islamic and Iranian studies at the School of Asian, African and Amerindian Studies, the University of Leiden, the Netherlands. He holds a PhD in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies from the Department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, the University of Edinburgh, UK.

Speaking at the launch, Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou said: “The future of Southern Mediterranean countries lies of course in the hands of their people and leaders. But the European Union is ready to lend its support to political, economic and social development. We have therefore moved to anchor our new partnerships in joint commitments to the values we all cherish: democracy, human rights, good governance, rule of law and social justice. Education is central to our efforts. In order to reach our objectives of a democratic and prosperous Southern Mediterranean, we need to concentrate on young people.”

The European Commission has significantly increased funding for the Southern Mediterranean through its international higher education programmes, Tempus and Erasmus Mundus. Tempus, which supports the modernisation of higher education, has received an additional € 12.5 million in 2012 and 2013, taking total spending to € 29 million a year. Erasmus Mundus, which promotes European higher education and intercultural cooperation through cooperation with non-EU countries, will allocate € 80 million in Southern and Eastern neighbouring countries in 2012-2013, more than double the amount initially foreseen.

The new policy dialogue covers Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Syria may be invited to join it at a future date.

In an effort to offer a window onto this historical truth, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York, is hosting an enlightening exhibition: Byzantium and Islam – Age of Transition.

As declared by the curator at the Metropolitan Museum: ‘The exhibition follows the artistic traditions of the southern provinces of the Byzantine Empire from the seventh century to the ninth, as they were transformed from being central to the Byzantine tradition to being a critical part of the Islamic world.’

To create such a display of culture, a hight number of artefacts arrived in New York from many countries, and several flew in from Greece. Among these precious items are several beautiful 8th century carved ivory plaques, and golden earrings, decorated with vine scroll, birds and rabbits; treasures that tourists can usually admire at the Benaki Museum in Athens, Greece.

As to the thread connecting each artefact of the exhibition, it takes the visitor in territories extending from Syria to Egypt and across north Africa; directly in the heart of the world once ruled by the Byzantine Empire from its capital, Constantinople (today Istanbul). Much of the wealth of the Byzantine Empire came from these southern provinces. Trade routes moved silks, spices of the east and local products, to the west and the north. What is more, the state religion was Orthodox Christianity, as defined by the patriarch in Constantinople, but other forms of Christianity and Judaism flourished. As a result, these southern provinces, long influenced by Greco-Roman traditions, were home to Orthodox, Coptic, Syriac Christians, Jewish communities, and more.

These lands were dear to Constantinople, and commerce continued to flourish when the Sassanian Empire occupied much of Syria and Egypt from 614 to 629. In 630, the Byzantine emperor Heraclius regained these territories and celebrations were held in every city. As homage to the reacquired lands he offered the ‘True Cross’ to Jerusalem, and it remained in the city even when the Byzantine provinces were incorporated in the lands belonging to the Umayyad Dynasty, which lasted until 750.

Through time, and in spite of political changes, major cities were made wealthy by commerce. Trade routes reached eastward down the Red Sea, past Jordan, and entered India; other trades headed north to Constantinople and along the Mediterranean coastline. Commerce carried goods but also ideas, and they flowed freely throughout the whole region.

Islam, as the new religion and philosophy that emerged from Mecca and Medina, started to reach the empire’s southern provinces via the Red Sea trade route. In many cases political and religious authority was transferred from the established Christian Byzantine Empire to the newly established Umayyad Muslim dynasties – and later Abbasid dynasties. As natural in these cases, these new powers rooted their secular and religious identities onto the existing tradition, bending and transforming it. They gave shape and life to marvellous expression of faith and art, several of which we are able to admire today.

During the rise of the Umayyads and the transition of rule in the eastern Mediterranean, the text of the Qur’an, originally recited from memory, came to be written in Arabic, inspiring religious devotion and creativity. Verses from the Qur’an became standard decoration for mosques, funerary monuments, and other works. Calligraphy, evolved to present the teachings of the Qur’an, became a major artistic tradition. Mosques were erected in cities under Muslim rule and they would function as religious centres, but also as evidence of the authority in power. As speculated by scholars working on the exhibition, the new rulers might have hired Byzantine artisans to render the elaborate mosaic decoration of the Great Mosque in Damascus, the Umayyad capital, built between 705 and 715.

It would be naive to believe that when Islam became the dominant belief in the region, everything came to a stand still; fortunately, commerce and the flow of ideas continued, and evolved. Proof of it can be found in the history of many traded goods. Textiles are often taken into account, but they were only one of the many goods which were traded along the old routes, and brought valuables from the east to Byzantium, and later to the western Islamic world.

Several of these goods were decorated with popular motifs that remained in use when the Byzantine empire’s southern provinces became part of the Islamic world. Examples are found on silk, openwork censers, jewellery, and clay lamps. They vary from animal motifs, vine motifs and depictions of courtly pleasures – including female acrobats, dancers, and musicians.

Vine patterns were a favourite; however, as they passed from the classical period through the Byzantine era, and arrived in the Islamic period, they evolved into more stylized forms. Interesting enough, this decorative pattern would leave space for an increasing number of inscriptions, which will become a decorative motif – beautiful in themselves but also useful because they could identifying the donor, and offer auspicious wishes to the owner.

Further on, one of the most fascinating aspect of the exhibition is its ability to bring to life ways in which in the Arabic peninsula Christianity was able to live side by side with Islam.

To find out that Christians speaking Syriac trace their origins back to Saint Peter, and according to tradition he established a church in Antioch in the first century, is truly enlightening. To learn how the apostle Thomas spread the Gospel to the Syriac cities of Edessa and Nisibis (now in Turkey), helps the visitor to grasp the complexity and beauty of this philosophically intertwined society.

Following the exhibition, I learn that the Syriac Bible, known as the Peshitta, is based on the Hebrew Bible, which was translated into Syriac in the second century. In the same period, the Church of the East (once called the Nestorian Church) developed further east in the Sasanian Empire; another Syriac-speaking Christian community, it was active far into the Arabian Peninsula.

I am deeply grateful to the major support to the exhibition provided by Mary and Michael Jaharis, The Stavros Niarchos Foundation and The Hagop Kevorkian Fund; the exhibition is simply mesmerizing the visitor. Hopefully, many people will visit this display of culture, this window into one of the most fascinating and shrouded periods of Medieval history. To say they will learn how we can live side by side, in peace and mutual admiration and respect, might be naïve; however, if our ancestors were able in the past, we need to find a way to make it happen today as well.

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Romana Turina is a lecturer in Communication at the University of Indianapolis. She works as screenwriter and research thematics concerning dramaturgy, memory studies, and animation as applied to the divulgation of knowledge.