Turkish Premier Erdogan Wins King Faisal International Prize for Service to Islam

Riyadh, January 12, 2010, SPA -- Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has won
King Faisal International Prize (KFIP) for Service to Islam this year (1430H -
2010G).


In a press conference held here last night, Prince Khalid Al-Faisal, the
Governor of Makkah Region, who is the Director of King Faisal Foundation and
Chairman of the Prize's Commission expressed his thanks to and appreciation of
the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud,
Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdul-Aziz, Deputy Premier, Minister of Defense and
Aviation and Inspector General, and Prince Naif bin Abdul-Aziz, the Second
Deputy Premier and Minister of Interior for all attention and care being
provided to the Foundation and the Prize.


Earlier the Prize's Secretary General Dr. Abdullah Al-Othaimeen announced in a
speech the winners of King Faisal International Prize.

The winners of the Prize are the following:


The Prize for Service to Islam has been awarded to Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip
Erdogan whose achievements, in political and administrative terms, have set an
example of judicious leadership in the Islamic world.


Erdo?an's contributions during his tenure as mayor of Istanbul have been
instrumental to the progress of that city. Following his election as Prime
Minister of Turkey, he embarked on a series of reforms that quickly established
him as a statesman of enormous dimension, while his unyielding position on
various Islamic and global issues has gained him the respect of the entire
Islamic nation and the rest of the world.


Nationally, Erdo?an has pioneered a major campaign of 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, without compromising his ideals of democracy and justice.


With the strong support of his citizens, he has also rendered an outstanding
service to Islam by fiercely defending the rights and just causes of the
Islamic nation, particularly the rights of the Palestinian people.


At the global level, Erdo?an was one of the Muslim founders of the call for
understanding between civilizations, and a strong advocate of dialogue,
peaceful co-existence and international cooperation between different cultures
throughout the world.


The King Faisal International Prize for Science (Mathematics) for the year
1430H - 2010G has been awarded jointly to:
- Professor Enrico Bombieri (USA), IBM von Neumann Professor Institute for
Advanced Study Princeton University;
- Professor Terence Chi-Shen Tao (Australia), James and Carol Collins Chair of
Mathematics University of California, Los Angeles.


Professor Bombieri has made pioneering contributions to various branches of
mathematics. His work is characterized by originality, power, and clarity of
exposition, addressing fundamental and difficult problems in number theory,
algebraic geometry, complex analysis, and minimal surfaces.


Professor Tao is a world-renowned mathematician working in a number of branches
of mathematics including harmonic analysis, partial differential equations,
combinatorics, number theory, and signal processing. He is known for his highly
original solutions of very difficult and important problems and for his
technical brilliance in the use of the necessary mathematical machinery.



The King Faisal International Prize for Medicine (Non-Arthroplasty Management
of Degenerative Joint Disease) has been awarded jointly to:
-- Professor Reinhold Ganz (Germany), Chairman Emeritus, Orthopaedics
Department, University of Bern;
-- Professor Jean-Pierre Pelletier (Canada), Head of Osteoarthritis, Montreal
University;
-- Professor Johanne Martel Pelletier, (Canada), Joint Director of the
Osteoarthritis Research Unit, Montreal University.


Prof. Ganz dedicated his career to the study and treatment of diseases of the
hip-joint. He has carried out seminal anatomical research that contributed
substantially to the understanding of the blood supply to the acetabulum and
femoral head. He also devised a new surgical strategy for treatment of the
prearthritic hip. These achievements have led to his recognition as a leading
authority on conservative hip surgery.


Professors Jean Pelletier and Johanne Pelletier have contributed substantially
to translational research in the field of osteroarthritis. Their original work
has led to major discoveries in the pathophysiology of osteoarthritis,
particularly joint catabolism and repair. These studies have paved the way to
identification of therapeutic targets. In addition they develop an innovative
technology for the quantitative assessment of changes and alteration in
cartridge and other articular tissues.


The King Faisal International Prize for Arabic Language and Literature (Studies
Dealing with Arabic Grammatical Thought) has been awarded jointly to:
-- Professor Abderrahman El-Houari Hadj-Saleh (Algeria);
-- Professor Ramzi Mounir Baalbaki (Lebanon).


Professor Elhaj-Saleh received the award in recognition of his insightful
analysis of al-Khalil's linguistic theory, its relation to contemporary
grammatical thought, its originality and its place among other grammatical
concepts, as well as his prominent contributions to the advancement of Arabic
linguistics and Arabicization movement.


Professor Baalabakki is recognized for his outstanding original research on
Arabic grammatical thought. His publications, in Arabic and English, have
enhanced Arabic grammar education in western institutions and familiarized
western researchers with the fundamental manuscript of Si-Bawaihi, a revered
ancient scholar and founder of Arabic grammar, whose thoughts and methods have
profoundly influenced his successors to the present day.


The Prize for Islamic Studies (Studies Dealing with Religious Endowments (Waqf)
in Islam) has been withheld for lack of sufficiently meritorious nominations.


--SPA