As Kurdish parliamentarian Leyla Güven is on the 78th day of hunger strike, 50 Nobel Prize Laureates from multiple disciplines around the world joined her call to the government of Turkey to end the isolation of Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan and all other political prisoners.

“The Turkish government is in grave violation of its international and European Human Rights obligations – stressed Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Argentine Nobel Peace Laureate and former political prisoner. - It must stop now the practice of solitary confinement, enabling also the hunger strikers to end their solidarity actions.”

In making this call, Adolfo Pérez Esquivel is joined by 40 Nobel Laureates from the areas of Chemistry, Economics, Literature, Medicine and Physics, as well as nine of his fellow Nobel Peace Prize recipients: Betty Williams, Desmond Tutu, F. W. De Klerk, Jody Williams, José Ramos-Horta, Leymah Gbowee, Mairead Corrigan Maguire, Oscar Arias, and Shirin Ebadi.

“As Nobel Prize Laureates – Pérez Esquivel continues - we join with countless others around the world to urge the government of Turkey to assume its humanitarian responsibilities.  We also call on the relevant international and European institutions, including the Council of Europe, the OSCE, the European Union, the Committee for the Prevention of Torture, to fulfill their duties to press for Turkish compliance.

Hundreds of Kurdish prisoners, politicians and supporters are on hunger strike for weeks now, in Turkey and elsewhere, as the 20th anniversary of Öcalan´s kidnapping and detention approaches and the Turkish government refuses to comply with basic human rights norms which preclude long periods of solitary confinement. The life of Leyla Güven, also imprisoned in Diyarbakir, is in imminent danger.

An international delegation will visit Turkey in mid-February to try to see Öcalan and Güven and press for these same demands. In making this call, the 49 Nobel Prize Laureates joint their support to the International Call for Ending the Isolation of Abdullah Öcalan and all Political Prisoners in Turkey, first released on January 12, 2019.

“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 the hundreds of hunger strikers who are now pressing this same demand, including the Kurdish parliamentarian Leyla Güven, imprisoned in Diyarbakir, whose life is in imminent danger. We also join our support to the International Appeal for ending the isolation of Abdullah Öcalan and all political prisoners in Turkey, first released on January 12, 2019.”

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. 

The full text of the International appeal for ending the isolation of Abdullah Öcalan and all political prisoners in Turkey, to which the above signed Nobel Laureates now add their signatures, can be read here.

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