Türkiye’s Nobel laureate wears t-shirt supporting Turkish Cyprus

In support of North Cyprus, Aziz Sancar, Türkiye’s Nobel laureate in chemistry, has posed with a T-shirt that read “TRNC should be recognized,” receiving great praise on social media.

Nedime Serakıncı, health adviser of Turkish Cypriot President Ersin Tatar, sent the scientist the T-shirt on which “TRNC should be recognized” was written as a birthday gift to Sancar, who was born on Sept. 8, 1946.

“My dear teacher Aziz Sancar liked the gift from his adopted daughter, which I had made. He is carrying it with pride,” Serakıncı said while sharing Sancar’s photo in a social media post.

Sancar’s photo was widely covered in the North Cyprus media and received great appreciation on social media.

“On behalf of myself and the Turkish Cypriot people, I would like to thank Professor Aziz Sancar, who proudly wore Serakıncı’s gift and gave great support to our national struggle,” Tatar said.

The friendship between Sancar and Serakıncı progressed during Sancar’s visit to North Cyprus in 2017. Sancar addresses Serakinci as his ‘adopted daughter.’

Türkiye’s Nobel laureate also paid a visit to Azerbaijan’s capital city of Baku and Shusha, a symbolic city located in Karabak, which was liberated in 2020 after 28 years of Armenian occupation.

Works on the conversion of Sancar’s house in the southeastern province of Mardin into a museum also began in 2020.

Local authorities in Mardin prepared the project to restore a part of the three-story and 36-room historical house in the Savur district, where the Sancar family once lived.

Sancar, who works at the University of North Carolina, was among three scientists awarded the 2015 Nobel Chemistry Prize for their work on DNA repair.

Sancar won the prize along with Tomas Lindahl and Paul Modrich for their work in mapping the cells which repair ultraviolet damage to DNA. Their research was an important step toward treating cancer.

He recently conducted a study on a new method in the treatment of brain tumors that can be applied without damaging nerve cells.