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Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) has announced that 50 Nobel Prize Laureates, including Desmond Tutu from South Africa, have penned a joint statement addressing the government, calling them to end the isolation.
Raising concerns over the hunger strikes, the statement dated April 18 has been signed by 50 Nobel Prize Laureates from such diverse fields as Physics, Chemistry, Economy, Medicine and Literature. There are also Nobel Peace Prize Laureates among the signatories of the statement.
Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Hakkari MP and Democratic Society Congress (DTK) Co-Chair Leyla Güven went on a hunger strike on November 8, 2018 with the demand that the isolation imposed on Kurdistan Workers Party's (PKK) imprisoned leader Abdullah Öcalan be ended.
On December 16, hundreds of inmates from more than 50 prisons across Turkey followed suit and went on a hunger strike. As of March 1, 2019, thousands of inmates have been on a hunger strike. Since then, 7 inmates have claimed their own lives with the same demand.
'We stand in solidarity'
The joint statement is as follows:
"We, the undersigned Nobel Prize Laureates, from diverse disciplines around the world, call on the government of Turkey and the International Community at large, to take immediate action at this critical moment to end the solitary confinement of Abdullah Öcalan and all political prisoners in Turkey.
"In so doing, we stand in solidarity with hundreds of hunger strikers now pressing this same demand, including Kurdish parliamentarian Leyla Güven and other Kurdish MPs in Diyarbakır, whose life are in imminent danger. We also join our support to the International Appeal for ending the isolation of Öcalan and all political prisoners in Turkey, first released on April 18, 2019."
Signatories
Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Argentina. Nobel Peace Prize Laureate 1980
Betty Williams, Northern Ireland. Nobel Peace Prize Laureate 1976
Desmond Tutu, South Africa. Nobel Peace Prize Laureate 1984
F. W. De Klerk, South Africa. Nobel Peace Prize Laureate 1993
Jody Williams, United States. Nobel Peace Prize Laureate 1997
José Ramos-Horta, East Timor. Nobel Peace Prize Laureate 1996
Leymah Roberta Gbowee, Liberia. Nobel Peace Prize Laureate 2011
Mairead Corrigan Maguire, Northern Ireland. Nobel Peace Prize Laureate 1976
Oscar Arias, Costa Rica. Nobel Peace Prize Laureate 1987
Shirin Ebadi, Iran. Nobel Peace Prize Laureate 2003.
Dudley R. Herschbach, United States. Nobel Laureate in Chemistry 1986
Elias James Corey, United States. Nobel Laureate in Chemistry 1990
Gerhard Ertl, Germany. Nobel Laureate in Chemistry 2007
Joachim Frank, Germany / U.S. Nobel Laureate in Chemistry 2017
John C. Polanyi, Canada. Nobel Laureate in Chemistry 1986
Kary B. Mullis, United States. Nobel Laureate in Chemistry 1993
Richard Henderson, Great Britain. Nobel Laureate in Chemistry 2017
Robert H. Grubbs, United States. Nobel Laureate in Chemistry 2005
Roger D. Kornberg, United States. Nobel Laureate in Chemistry 2006
Thomas R. Cech, United States. Nobel Laureate in Chemistry 1989
Walter Gilbert, United States. Nobel Laureate in Chemistry 1980
Yuan T. Lee, Taiwan. Nobel Laureate in Chemistry 1986.
Edward C. Prescott,United States. Nobel Laureate in Economics 2004
Eric S. Maskin, United States. Nobel Laureate in Economics 2007
Finn E. Kydland, Norway. Nobel Laureate in Economics 2004
Oliver Hart, Great Britain. Nobel Laureate in Economics 2016.
Alice Munro, Canada. Nobel Laureate in Literature 2013
Elfriede Jelinek, Austria. Nobel Laureate in Literature 2004
J. M. Coetzee, South Africa. Nobel Laureate in Literature 2003
Mario Vargas Llosa, Peru. Nobel Laureate in Literature 2010
Wole Soyinka, Nigeria. Nobel Laureate in Literature 1986
Carol W. Greider, United States. Nobel Laureate in Medicine 2009
Edmond H. Fischer, Switzerland / U.S. Nobel Laureate in Medicine 1992
Eric R. Kandel, Austria. Nobel Laureate in Medicine 2000
Erwin Neher, Germany. Nobel Laureate in Medicine 1991
J. Robin Warren, Australia. Nobel Laureate in Medicine 2005
Jack W. Szostak, Great Britain. Nobel Laureate in Medicine 2009
Leland H. Hartwell, United States. Nobel Laureate in Medicine 2001
Louis J. Ignarro, United States. Nobel Laureate in Medicine 1998
Sir Richard J. Roberts, Great Britain. Nobel Laureate in Medicine 1993
Sydney Brenner, South Africa. Nobel Laureate in Medicine 2002
Thomas C. Sudhof, Germany / U.S. Nobel Laureate in Medicine 2013
Tim Hunt, Great Britain. Nobel Laureate in Medicine 2001
Torsten N. Wiesel, Sweden. Nobel Laureate in Medicine 1981.
Anthony J. Leggett, Great Britain. Nobel Laureate in Physics 2003
Gérard Morou, France. Nobel Laureate in Physics in 2018
Kip Stephen Thorne, United States. Nobel Laureate in Physics 2017
Sheldon Glashow, United States. Nobel Laureate in Physics 1979
Steven Weinberg,United States. Nobel Laureate in Physics 1979
William D. Phillips,United States. Nobel Laureate in Physics 1997
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