Vienna, 13 March 1998/P/K/15863c-is
Prominent people from all around the globe are endorsing the initiative of Prof. Hans Koechler, President of the I.P.O., to nominate UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan for the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of his peace mission to Baghdad.
In Turkey, eminent persons from public life have declared their support of the initiative and have signed the nomination letter which was forwarded to the Nobel Committee of the Norwegian Parliament. At the initiative of Professor Tuerkkaya Ataoev, Professor of International Relations at the University of Ankara, and Professor Talat S. Halman, former Minister of Culture of Turkey, more than three hundred personalities have endorsed the nomination. Among the signatories are Mr. Sabit Osman Avci, former Speaker of the Turkish Parliament, Professor Muemtaz Soysal, former Foreign Minister of Turkey, and leading Turkish University Professors, intellectuals, and industrialists.
At the International Conference to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, held earlier last week in New Delhi, human rights experts and diplomats from all over the world expressed their support of the initiative.
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