69 Nobel Prize winners from all disciplines sent a letter to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The letter asked the president to "rekindle the efforts you began with the Oslo talks and the Imrali process and send your representatives to begin new talks with Mr. Öcalan and that you end his isolation on Imrali Island."

The letter reads as follows: 

"In January of 2021 some 50 Nobel Laureates of all disciplines wrote you about our concerns about the treatment of prisoners in Turkish prisons, including Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan.  We, 69 Nobel Laureates, are writing again to express our deepened concern about the worsened conditions under which Mr. Öcalan is being held since his complete isolation from the outside world after his last communication with his brother, a two-minute phone call before it was cut off, on March 21, 2021. 

In a world increasingly plagued with violence, death, destruction and war, including the terrifying Russian threats to use nuclear weapons as a result of their invasion of Ukraine, all life on this planet is facing an extremely unclear future.  We need leaders now more than ever who have the courage to pursue different paths and believe that any action that signals a different course is possible should be pursued. It is in this context that we are appealing to you, President Erdoğan, to again pursue a path of peace.

We believe that you think peace is possible even as we all know it is not an easy path to follow.  You demonstrated that with the Oslo talks (2009-2011) and the Imrali process (2013-2015) during which, under your guidance and supervision, government representatives met and discussed the potential for reconciliation with Mr. Abdullah Öcalan.  While the long desired possibility of peace did not emerge from those talks, it does not mean that peace and reconciliation are impossible.

It is in the search for peace - which would send a much needed message of hope for possible different futures to people around the world - that we ask that you to rekindle the efforts you began with the Oslo talks and the Imrali process and send your representatives to begin new talks with Mr. Öcalan and that you end his isolation on Imrali Island.

The world needs new, enlightened leadership and an end to violence and war.

Sincerely,

Jody WILLIAMS, Nobel Peace Prize (1997)

Peter AGRE, Chemistry, USA, 2003                                                                

Thomas R. Cech, Chemistry USA, 1989

Martin CHALFIE, Chemistry, USA, 2008                                                      

Aaron CIECHANOVER, Chemistry, Israel, 2004

Johann DEISENHOFER, Chemistry, German, 1988                                      

Gerhard ERTL, Chemistry, Germany,2007

Joachim FRANK, Chemistry, USA/GER, 2017                                              

Walter GILBERT, Chemistry USA, 1980

Alan HEEGER, Chemistry, USA, 2000                                                           

Richard HENDERSON, Chemistry, UK, 2017

Robert HUBER, Chemistry, Germany, 1988                                               

Martin KARPLUS, Chemistry, USA, 2013

Roger D. KORNBERG, Chemistry, USA, 2006                                         

Yuan T. LEE, Chemistry, Japan, 1986

Michael LEVITT, Chemistry, US/ISRAEL/UK, 2013                                

Hartmut MICHEL, Chemistry, Germany, 1988

Paul L. MODRICH, Chemistry, USA, 2015                                                

John C. POLANYI, Chemistry, Canada, 1986

Jean-Pierre SAUVAGE, Chemistry, France, 2016                                      

Richard R. SCHROCK, Chemistry, USA, 2005

Sir james Fraser STODDART, Chemistry, US/UK, 2016                           

Arieh WARSHEL, Chemistry, israel, 2013

Sir Oliver HART, Economics, US/UK, 2016                                              

Finn e. KYDLAND, Economics, Norway, 2004

Eric S. MASKIN, Economics, USA, 2007                                                  

Edmund S. PHELPS, Economics, USA, 2006

J. M. COETZEE, Literature, South Africa, 2003                                        

Elfriede JELINEK, Literature, Austria, 2004

Herta MÜLLER, Literature, German, 2009                                              

Orhan PAMUK, Literature, Turkey, 2006

Wole SOYINKA, Literature, Nigeria, 1986                                               

Harvey J. ALTER, Medicine, USA, 2020

Andrew Z. FIRE, Medicine, USA, 2006                                                     

H. Robert HORVITZ, Medicine, USA, 2002

Tim HUNT, Medicine, UK, 2001                                                                         

Louis J. IGNARRO, Medicine, USA, 1998

Barry J. MARSHALL, Medicine, Australia, 2005                                      

Ardem PATAPOUTIAN, Medicine, Lebnan/USA, 2021      

Sir Peter J. RATCLIFFE, Medicine, UK, 2019                                           

Charles M. RICE, Medicine, USA, 2020                                

Sir Richard J. ROBERTS, Medicine, US/UK, 1993                                    

Michael ROSBASH, Medicine, USA, 2017

Gregg L. SEMENZA, Medicine, USA, 2019                                                           

Jack W. SZOSTAK, Medicine, UK/USA, 2009

Mairead CORRIGAN-MAGUIRE, Peace, Ireland, 1976                                     

Shirin EBADI, Peace, USA, 2003

Adolfo Perez ESQUIVEL, Peace, Argentinia, 1980                                 

Dmitry MURATOV, Peace, Russia, 2021

Oscar Arias SANCHEZ, Peace, Costa Rica, 1987                                    

Kailash SATYARTHI, Peace, India, 2014

Rigoberta MENCHU TUM, Peace, Guatemala, 1992                                   

Barry Clark BARISH, Physics, USA, 2017                                                 

J. Georg BEDNORZ, Physics, Germany, 1987

Steven CHU, Physics, USA, 1997                                                                

Albert FERT, Physics, France, 2007

Sheldon GLASHOW, Physics, USA, 1979                                                  

David J. GROSS, Physics, USA, 2004

Serge HAROCHE, Physics, France, 2012                                                 

Gerardus 't HOOFT, Physics, Netherland, 1999

Takaaki KAJITA, Physics, Japan, 2015                                                       

Ferenc KRAUSZ, Physics, Austria, 2023                               

John C. MATHER, Physics, USA, 2006                                                     

Michel MAYOR, Physics, Switzerland, 2019        

Konstantin NOVOSELOV, Physics, UK, 2010                                          

Giorgio PARISI, Physics, Italy, 2021                                        

Roger PENROSE, Physics, UK, 2020                                                        

Robert Woodrow WILSON, Physics, USA, 1978  

David J. WINELAND, Physics, USA, 2012