About the International Conference for Peace and Security in Rhodes

Dodecanese Network of Solidarity 

about the International Conference for Peace and Security in Rhodes

Dodecanese, 23rd of May, 2017

The conference between 15 countries of the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East, (Egypt, Algeria, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Libya, Albania, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Italy, Cyprus and Greece) for peace and security in the region, was  carried out yesterday on the island of Rhodes. No meeting for peace would be superfluous if the political practices of the members involved could assure us of their honorable intentions. Unfortunately, it is about a fiesta that has nothing to do with peace and security. The conference refutes its own objectives from the moment that many of its members are the ringleaders of bloody wars or harsh dictatorships. When the people of Yemen are torn apart by a relentless war, it is at the very least, disrespectful to the thousands of dead of this land and its children who are dying of starvation, for the ringleaders and butchers to have a podium for peace. The war in Yemen is surrounded by a conspiracy of silence which weighs heavy even on those who are not directly involved in its leveling, but with a singular omerta, conceal those responsible and close their eyes in front of the mass extermination of its people. This responsibility grows even larger by the fact that there is no possibility of escape of refugees from the bloodshed. It is also tragically ironic that nations, who did not take in a single refugee from the now levelled Syria,  should talk about peace and security. This show of inhumanity amongst nations of the same religion and same language has multiplied the mass deaths of Syrian refugees in the Aegean Sea and brings forth many suspicions as concerns the views of these nations towards the future integrity of Syria. With these facts and with no reference made  as to the internal front of the dictatorship, it is at least questionable what Saudi Arabia would have to say at this conference. From what has divulged from the current situation in Libya, there is talk of a constant theater of war. The “Libyan Spring” was quickly undermined by the West and along with the bombardments from the air, has left Libya with thousands of dead, wounded and homeless with an evergrowing infiltration of ISIS. The desperate caravans of refugees escape, knowing all to well that there are few possibilites of survival but which are preferred over certain death. Even the participation of Libya raises questions as to who will represent the absolute chaos of this country and what will be their approach towards peace. Syria continues to be the stage of vicious conflicts. The last bombardment by the Americans highlights the obvious, the transformation of this country into a field of harsh imperialistic confrontations which lead this people to annihilation and to the fragmentation of Syria. As the conference is taking place, it is quite possible that land operations are being conducted by the Americans, which only makes the already bad situation of this country even more complex and hazardous and most definitely prolongs the war. What was the involvement of the American bases on Greek ground with the bombardments  now in Syria and before in Libya and before that in Iraq and Afghanistan? What do we mean by peace and security in the region, when we are involved in one way or another, in the massacres? Of course, by the term “security”, it would seem that we are overcome by the approach brought about by the shameful agreement between the EU and Turkey, which considers the latter secure enough for all the refugees’ expectations to end there, only to be deported.The total expulsions abolish every international treaty for refugees and of course any meaning of humanity. At the moment when the fifteen nations expound their ideals about the badly beaten peace in our region, Trump is touring from Saudi Arabia to Israel on a supposed peacemaking expedition. Not only is there no commitment on behalf of Israel in concern with the Palestinian issue, but Trump and Netaniahou have jointly issued new threats against Iran. As far as the Palestinian issue is concerned, it should be noted that Palestine is not included with the 15 who are convening in Rhodes. Nor, of course, is Israel. It would seem that the policy of equal distances equates, once again, the predator with the prey. The fact that Syria was also absent from the conference most definitely creates questions. Thus, Yemen, Palestine and Syria, the countries with the most bloodshed in the region are not present at the conference.

Finally, in our own country, a different kind of war, of economic assassins, has turned our people into the loot of international usury. It has made hundreds of thousands of our youths economic refugees and has trapped even more in the despair of unemployment. Each memorandum is a megaton bomb from which millions of newly poor struggle to survive. Within these conditions in our country and our region, peace and security have no need of fiestas and idea exchanges. More so, they are provoked by the cynicism and hypocrisy. As always throughout history, even now, jope for peace and security amongst the peoples can only come through a wider popular resistance.