This Friday will bring us the answer whether Yushchenko takes his place next to Yasser Arafat,Mikhail Gorbachev and Nelson Mandela or not. Probably his merit will not deserve the Nobel Peace Prize, will it? Friday will resolve our doubts.
According to tradition, the list of the winners keeps in secret. But US Senators John McCain and Hillary Clinton revealed the names of their protégés – Victor Yushchenko and Mikhail Saakashvili. Things happen. On January 24, they sent the letter containing Presidents’ names to Nobel Prize Committee.
The Ceremony of Awarding will take place in Stockholm and Oslo on December 10 – the death-day of Alfred Nobel.
The first time the Nobel Prize was given to Henry Dunant, founder of the Red Cross, shared the first prize with Frédéric Passy, leading international pacifist of the time. According to Nobel’s testament, each laureate is given 10 million Swiss krona (it made $1.3 million in 2004).
Andrew Shkil, the deputy of Ukraine, BYT faction (Bloc of Yulia Timoshenko)
Yushchenko has fair chances due to events happened in the Orange Revolution were really prominent. I think if President constantly acted as a peacemaker Ukraine would have better life and better society. But unfortunately, sometimes he does something opposite else.
The prize for President will be the prize for all society which demonstrated prominent peacemaking talents. Orange Revolution went without blood.
Touching upon Mikhail Saakashvili, I think Yushchenko has more chances to win than his Georgian counterpart. The confrontation in Ukraine was much stronger than in Georgia.
The existing situation in Ukraine will influence the opinion of the experts concerning the awarding of the prize. However, the events must not be appreciated post factum. The events deserve it.
I think it is too early and impudent to get or to take Nobel Prize for the head of the state where the human rights are neglected and political repression are executed. There was not any revolution – just change of the power in accordance with the term stated in the Constitution. The “old” president was substituted by the “new” one, that what it was.
The same situation exists in Georgia.
In my opinion, neither Saakashvili nor Yushchenko have any chances to be awarded with Nobel Prize.
