Reclusive poet fails to collect award

ISTANBUL - Anatolia News Agency

Poet Sezai Karakoç. Hürriyet photo

Sezai Karakoç, one of Turkey’s most famous poets yet a known recluse, failed to attend the Presidential Grand Award for Art and Culture ceremony at Çankaya Palace yesterday to collect an honor that he was recently given.

Noting Karakoç’s absence, host Kenan Işık said the poet would be presented with the award following the proceedings.

Karakoç is an artist who prefers to keep a low profile, shying away from the limelight and opting to be known only for his poems, instead leaving his work to take the stage. According to his readers, this is one of his defining and most important characteristics.

Karakoç did not accept the Culture Ministry award in 2006 and returned the money which accompanied the prize to the ministry, saying he wanted it to be spent on cultural and artistic events.

Deputy Prime Ministers Bülent Arınç and Beşir Atalay, Food Agriculture and Livestock Minister Mehmet Mehdi Eker, Customs and Trade Minister Hayati Yazıcı, Culture and Tourism Minister Ertuğrul Günay, Finance Mehmet Şimşek Minister, Defense Minister İstmet Yılmaz, Justice and Development Party (AKP) deputy head Hüseyin Çelik and Ankara Gov. Alaaddin Yüksel all attended the event.