The Austrian daily newspaper Der Standard wrote that 69 Nobel laureates called for the freedom of Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan.

In his article, journalist Michael Völker wrote: “69 Nobel Prize winners from different disciplines called for the release of Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan and the peaceful resolution to the conflict with the Kurds in the letter they sent to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.”

The article added that “the 2004 Austrian Nobel Prize in Literature Elfriede Jelinek was among the signatories of the letter. The first signatory was human rights activist Jody Wiliams, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 for hers work against landmines.”

The article included information about the isolation of Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan, and underlined that the Kurdish People’s Leader “is considered a key figure in the solution of the Kurdish problem.”

The article said, “Öcalan is still seen today as a figure in the Kurds’ struggle for autonomy and freedom and is respected as their leader by many Kurds outside Turkey. From prison, he repeatedly called for a peaceful resolution of the conflict with Turkey and announced a ceasefire later called by Kurdish guerrilla fighters. In July 2015, Erdoğan officially declared the end of the peace process, and Turkey began to crack down on the PKK and Kurdish parties and organizations it suspected of having close ties to the PKK. Attacks against Kurds also take place in Iraq and Syria.”

The news drew attention to the fight of PKK fighters against ISIS mercenaries in Syria and Iraq, and pointed out that the US, some European countries and the Turkish state still describe the PKK as a “terrorist organization”.

The newspaper said: “In their letter to Erdoğan, the 69 Nobel Prize academics wrote that ‘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. […] It is in this context that we are appealing to you, President Erdoğan, to again pursue a path of peace.”

The letter argues that peace is possible and that Turkey should include Öcalan in these efforts and “end his isolation on Imrali Island.”