Call by 50 Nobel Prize Laureates: End the Solitary Confinement

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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

(AS/SD)