Mare Nostrum has become "Mare Mortis" for refugees. Every day, hundreds of inflatable dinghies carry migrants to Europe. Some sink, some reach their destination. The situation is so dire that no one knows how many reach European shores. Neither does anyone know how many perish at sea. The approximate number of refugees can only be guessed when they catch a ride from the Greek islands to the mainland and amass on the margins of Central Europe. Trafficking of migrants from the Middle East to Europe has become an industry. Depending on the mode of transportation, the fee ranges from 2,000 euros up to 20,000 euros. There are some who hire luxury yachts or even jet skis while the majority braves the sea only with a dinghy. Many so-called businessmen from Turkey, Greece, Italy and various Arab countries are involved in this criminal sector. States simply cannot cope. The European Union, proud of its transparent and progressive policies, is powerless in the face of such a refugee exodus. With this state of affairs, individual EU countries are trying to formulate their own national strategies, which are undermining the foundations of the EU. Many of the EU's achievements, including the borderless Schengen zone, are in danger of collapse. Becoming conscious of the fact that European institutions lack the necessary dynamics to resolve the matter, member countries are acting in a way that will create a vicious cycle of distrust that will be almost impossible to reverse.This simple summary of facts is the reason why we are all being pushed to a crisis, the cost of which the EU fears, or it is disposed to offset. We need to accurately define what we are faced with. The calamity we see happening around us cannot be called a refugee crisis. It is the Syrian crisis. The EU is confronted with the repercussions of the Syrian crisis, not a simple refugee crisis. Since the beginning of the Syrian crisis in 2011, over 4 million people have left the country and sought shelter elsewhere. At first, Syrians waited at the border areas of neighboring countries in the hope of returning to their homes sometime soon. However, once they saw that civilian massacres continued unabated, they began their journeys to the West. Right now, millions of Syrians are planning a new life in North America or Western Europe. Compared to what will come next, the current number of refugees beginning this often deadly journey is just a pittance. Millions more are biding their time to travel west.Media outlets in the EU are full of tragic and sometimes romantic journeys undertaken by these desperate people, while their politicians hide behind the stories to escape the facts.Football trainer Osama Abdul Mohsen and Hungarian camerawomen Petra Laszlo, who tripped him, dominated headlines for quite a while. Hundreds of articles were written about 3-year-old Aylan Kurdi whose body was found on the Bodrum shore. European elites voiced their grief and told their people that something should be done. However, the focus is not on the source, but its consequences. European leaders are now involved in haggling over how many refugees they should admit. However, they loath to admit the fact that the Syrian crisis is like a volcano that everyone knows will one day create a conflagration that will engulf the entire region.European leaders are deluding themselves if they think they are distancing themselves from the real cost of the Syrian crisis. Failing to address the true cost of the crisis now, they will be forced to pay much more dearly in the future. Turkey's repeated calls for a comprehensive solution to the crisis are yet to receive the appropriate response from either the EU or the U.S.Only when the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) became a direct threat did the U.S. decide to act. They developed an anti-ISIS strategy that purposefully ignored the Assad regime, which has killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people and has been the principal cause of the Syrian crisis. This strategy, rather than eliminating ISIS, instead aggravated the violence. The U.S. administration, which four years ago had said Assad's days were numbered, is now of the opinion that Assad's exit will happen in the fullness of time. It appears they see no urgency in ridding the region from the Assad menace. The U.S. sees nothing wrong with the presence of the Assad regime, which kills civilians and exports chaos throughout the region. EU member states believe the real problem is the refugees trying to seek shelter in their countries. Neither wants to properly define the crisis and face up to its facts. As world leaders gather in New York to attend the U.N. General Assembly's opening session, facts need to be laid out on the table. There is no ISIS crisis. There is no refugee crisis. There is only one devastating Syria crisis.