Greek islanders to be nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

Greek islanders are to be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize with the support of their national government.

A petition on the website of the grassroots campaign group, Avaaz, in favour of the nomination has amassed 280,000 signatures.

Greece has an extremely large number of islands, with estimates ranging from somewhere around 1,200 to 6,000,depending on the minimum size to take into account. The number of inhabited islands is variously cited as between 166 and 227.

The largest Greek island by area is Crete, located at the southern edge of the Aegean Sea.

With many thousands of refugees—most of them from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Sub-Saharan Africa—still trying to reach Europe on a daily basis, the sea crossing remains the most dangerous part of any journey.

Why Greek islanders are to be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize?

• For their compassion and courage, for treating those in danger with humanity, and for setting an example for the rest of the world to follow.

• Of the 900,000 refugees who entered Europe last year most were received – scared, soaked and travelling in rickety boats – by those who live on the Greek islands in the Aegean Sea.

• The islanders, including fishermen gave up their work to rescue people from the sea, are in line to be honoured with one of the world’s most esteemed awards.

• Eminent academics from the universities of Oxford, Princeton, Harvard, Cornell and Copenhagen are drafting a submission in favour of awarding the prize to the people of Lesbos, Kos, Chíos, Samos, Rhodes and Leros.

The Nobel Peace Prize Facts:

• The Nobel Peace Prize  is one of the five Nobel Prizes created by the Swedish industrialist, inventor, and armaments manufacturer Alfred Nobel.

• It has been awarded annually (with some exceptions) to those who have “done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses”.

• The recipient is selected by the Norwegian Nobel Committee, a five-member committee appointed by theParliament of Norway.

• Nominations must usually be submitted to the Committee by the beginning of February in the award year.

• The Nobel laureate receives a diploma, a medal, and a document confirming the prize amount.

•  As of 2013, the prize was worth 10 million SEK (about US$1.5 million).

• In 1948, following Gandhi’s death, the Nobel Committee declined to award a prize on the ground that “there was no suitable living candidate” that year.

• when the Dalai Lama was awarded the Peace Prize in 1989, the chairman of the committee said that this was “in part a tribute to the memory of Mahatma Gandhi.