Could Sancar have won the Nobel Prize had he stayed in Turkey?

A Turkish-born scientist made the headlines yesterday for winning the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, while also raising the question whether it would be possible had he stayed in Turkey instead of moving to the United States.

Aziz Sancar, whose works on mapping how cells repair damaged DNA, earned him a Nobel along with Sweden?s Tomas Lindahl Paul Modrich of the United States, studied medicine at Istanbul University in 1963 and moved to the U.S. after graduation, just like many Turkish scientists who want to focus on research in fundamental sciences.

Had he stayed in Turkey, Sancar would have most probably been included in political debates when it came to fund allocations or assignments. 

Turkey?s top science body, the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜB?TAK), has turned into a battleground between the government and the followers of its ally-turned-nemesis Fethullah Gülen, a U.S.-based Islamic cleric. The first criterion to being appointed a university rector, a dean or a department head is now your political views. Most rectors spend more time praising President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an and the government than dealing with problems in their universities, let alone encouraging academic research.  
 
While the political pressure and lack of transparency in the majority of Turkish universities force many academics to seek their fortunes abroad, the education of fundamental sciences ? physics, biology, chemistry ? and mathematics in high schools and universities is in a dreadful situation. 

The country?s students are among the lowest scorers in PISA, a worldwide study by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in member and non-member nations of 15-year-old school pupils? scholastic...