Nobel laureate Sancar meets President Erdoğan, Chief of General Staff

Erdinç Çelikkan - ANKARA

AA photo

Nobel Prize in Chemistry laureate Aziz Sancar met with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Chief of General Staff Hulusi Akar in Ankara on Dec. 15, stating again that he will present his medal and certificate to the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Turkish Republic.

During his one-and-a-half-hour long meeting with Erdoğan at the presidential palace, Sancar was accompanied by his spouse Gwen Sancar.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Sancar said he had entrusted his Nobel medal and certificate to Gen. Akar, in order for it to be placed at Atatürk’s mausoleum, Anıtkabir, on May 19, the Commemoration of Atatürk, Youth and Sports Day. 

“I have entrusted both the medal and the certificate to the Chief of General Staff … God willing, we will present them at Anıtkabir on May 19,” Sancar said. 

“This is a medal of Atatrük and the republic. I will come here again on May 19 and we will put them in Anıtkabir,” he added. 

May 19 is considered to mark the beginning of the Turkish War of Independence, and is a national holiday in Turkey.

Sancar, one of three joint winners of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, received his prize at a ceremony in Stockholm on Dec. 10, the same day as Tunisia’s National Dialogue Quartet were presented the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo. 

In Stockholm, Sancar again expressed his gratitude to the republic for “sponsoring most of his education.”
“This award was earned thanks to Atatürk,” he said.