Alliance of civilizations or alliance of people?

I was checking out Erkan's blog and followed one of his posts to this article titled Alliance of civilizations or alliance of people?

In it, Cengiz Aktar begins with:
Early last week we were in Brussels as part of lobbying activities linked to Istanbul's candidacy as Europe's Capital of Culture for 2010, and we spent the rest of the week in Algiers to participate in a congress titled “North-South Dialog on the Mediterranean.” Objectives and efforts were very similar: To find ways to best revitalize the remarkable cultural heritage of the Mediterranean basin in order to rediscover the art of living together, recreating the Mediterranean as an antidote to the current tensions and showing that geographic borders should not become cultural or political walls.

Three important nongovernmental organizations organized the meeting. The European Movement, formed after World War II; the Euro-Mediterranean Foundation, formed in honor of murdered Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindt; and the Biblioteca Alexandrina. More than 500 delegates from around the Mediterranean basin attended the three-day meeting.