President honors culture, arts award winners

ANKARA

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has honored the achievements of artists with the Presidential Culture and Arts Grand Awards.

The annual award ceremony took place at the presidential complex in the capital Ankara with limited participation due to the pandemic.

Turkish Cypriot director and screenwriter Derviş Zaim, engraved in people’s minds with movies such as “Shadows and Faces” and “Flash Memory,” was awarded in the category of cinema.

In the field of music, Özdemir Erdoğan, the songwriter, composer and singer of many pop music songs that were hit pieces in the 1970s and 1980s, was awarded.

He was also elected as a Turkish state artist in 1998 by the then president Süleyman Demirel.

The literature prize was awarded to İbrahim Tenekeci, a poet and columnist, while Sadettin Ökten, an academic, received the award for cultural history.

İsmail Kara, known for his writings on Islam and Islamism, received the social sciences award.

Collector Mehmet Çebi was among the names deemed worthy of the award.

The loyalty award was given to Necmeddin Okyay, a calligraphist who died on Jan. 5, 1976.

The Presidential Culture and Art Grand Awards are given to people who have made significant contributions to Turkish culture and arts life, who work to elevate the culture and arts of the country, and who show outstanding talent with their works.

Last year, Erdoğan had conferred the award for music to Turkish pop-rock band MFÖ, whose members are Mazhar Alanson, Fuat Güner and Özkan Uğur, for their representation of cultural identity.