Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos Wins Nobel Peace Prize 2016

The Norwegian Nobel Committee announced that this year's Peace Prize is awarded to Juan Manuel Santos, the President of Colombia. The reason for selecting Mr. Santos as the Nobel Peace Prize winner in 2016 is his determination and effort to end half a century of civil war in Colombia, a conflict that has led to the deaths of at least 220,000 Colombians and the displacement of about 6 million people. The Nobel Peace Prize Committee's statement highlights Juan Manuel Santos's initiative in negotiating with the FARC rebels, which resulted in a peace treaty between the Colombian government and them. The statement notes that Mr. Santos, aware of all aspects of this controversial agreement, created a space for Colombian voters to express their concerns about it in a referendum. The outcome of the referendum was not what he wanted, as the majority of Colombians voted against it. In the referendum held on Sunday, October 2, in Colombia, opponents of the peace treaty between the government and the FARC rebels won by a very narrow margin, with 50.2% against 49.7%. However, Juan Manuel Santos announced that despite the negative vote on this agreement, he would not surrender and remains steadfast on the path to peace. The peace agreement between the leftist FARC rebels and the Colombian government was reached in early September this year after prolonged negotiations between the parties involved, under which FARC members accepted the condition of disarmament. FARC, or the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, was a movement that began with uprisings among peasants and farmers. At one point, this group had 20,000 militants and simultaneously became a significant player in the cocaine trafficking and sales scene. The Nobel Peace Committee stated that the negative vote of the majority of the Colombian people on the peace treaty with FARC does not mean that the Colombian people do not want peace, but rather that they have conditions for peace. The committee also emphasized that the selection of the Colombian president as the winner of the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize is, in fact, a recognition of the people of this country who, despite all hardships, have not lost hope for achieving peace. Previously, the Nobel Peace Research Institute had announced that due to the negative outcome of the referendum regarding the peace treaty between the Colombian government and the FARC rebels, this agreement would be removed from the list of nominees for this year's Nobel Peace Prize. The number of nominees for the Nobel Peace Prize this year was announced as 376 individuals and organizations, which is a record in the history of this award. Among them, Mohammad Javad Zarif and John Kerry, the foreign ministers of Iran and the United States, and Federica Mogherini, the EU foreign policy chief, were also figures who were expected to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 2016 due to the nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers.