Turkish PM Awarded King Faisal Prize for Service to Islam

JEDDAH - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been awarded the King Faisal International Prize for Service to Islam, according to an announcement made by Dr Abdullah Al Othaimeen, secretary-general, in Riyadh on Monday.

By (Our Correspondent)

Published: Thu 14 Jan 2010, 1:03 AM

Last updated: Mon 17 Feb 2020, 10:13 PM

He said members of the selection committees had made their decision at a series of two-day sessions from January 9 to 11 this year. The Islamic Studies branch of the award was withheld because the works nominated did not meet the set standards.
Erdogan was awarded the prize for his political and administrative achievements, and leadership in the Islamic World. According to the award committee, his tenure as mayor of Istanbul had been instrumental in the progress of that city.
Following his election as prime minister, Erdogan embarked on a series of reforms that established him as a leading statesman in the world. Nationally, Erdogan had pioneered a major campaign for economic, social and cultural reforms that paved the way for substantial national development and placed Turkey among the world’s leading countries, economically and industrially. This was achieved without compromising his ideals of democracy and justice, the committee stated on its website.
It said he has also been known as a strong defender of Muslims all over the world, including the Palestinian people.
Winners of the other three of the award’s five branches were Algerian Professor Abderrahman El Houari Hadj Saleh and Lebanese Professor Ramzi Mounir Balabakki, who shared the Arabic Language and Literature Award (Studies Dealing with Arabic Grammatical Thought.)
The Science Award (Mathematics) was jointly given to American Professor Enrico Bombieri of IBM von Neumann Professor Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University, and Australian Professor Terence Chi Shen Tao of James and Carol Collins Chair of Mathematics, University of California, Los Angeles. The Medicine Award (Non-Arthroplasty Management of Degenerative Joint Disease) was jointly awarded to German Professor Reinhold Ganz of Chairman Emeritus, Orthopaedics Department, University of Bern, and Canadian professors Professor Jean-Pierre Pelletier, head of Osteoarthritis, Montreal University, and Professor Johanne Martel Pelletier, Joint Director of the Osteoarthritis Research Unit, Montreal University.
habib@khaleejtimes.com