Winners receive Presidential awards at Çankaya Mansion

ANKARA

Selim İleri , who won the award for literature, is speaking at the ceremony held at Çankaya Presidential Mansion.

Three artists who combine historical Turkish culture with modern touches were honored with the Presidential Grand Art and Culture Award.

Selim İleri was recognized for merging his love of literature with his passion for Istanbul and bridging tradition and modernity in his work. Late Ottoman history professor Şükrü Hanioğlu was honored for sharing Turkish history on a global scale and Ahmet Hatipoğlu won the award for enriching Turkish classical and “tasavvuf” music and exposing its sounds to a wider audience. In addition, the Zeugma Culture City and Museum in the southern city of Gaziantep received a cultural award.

The ceremony, held at the Çankaya Presidential Mansion in Ankara, opened with a concert by Göksel Baktagir, after which Ahmet Hatipoğlu, Selim İleri, Şükrü Hanioğlu and Zeugma Culture City and Museum received their awards, each presented by President Abdullah Gül and followed by a speech. In his speech, Gül said Turkey had been going through significant changes in recent years. “There have been many important reforms. Those reforms are political and economic, have changed the country a lot and given us a huge trust. There are many changes in health, education and trade in Turkey. We are proud of these changes.”

Noting that Turkey’s image also changed a lot, Gül said, this is a very proud change. “There are many changes in health, education and trade in Turkey. We are proud of these changes.

Most of the activities happen in Istanbul, said Gül adding that the city is a global one. “If a country does not have a global city, then it is very hard for them to become global. Istanbul i a very important city for many countries.”

Regarding the Zeugma Ancient City, Gül praised and thanked the support given by the Gaziantep Municipality to make the region a center of culture. “Archaeologists worked very fast and they excavated many treasures from the soil.” Hatipoğlu’s speech encouraged the government to support students studying music, and he said Turkish music had long been perceived in the wrong way.
In his acceptance speech, Ileri expressed his happiness about receiving the award. “I did not expect to receive the award. This is a very nice surprise for me. In recent years, there has been a popularity trend and I wanted to be away from all of that. That’s why receiving this award has made me very happy.”

According to İleri, his literary career began after reading writer Reşat Nuri Güntekin’s story, “Cherries,” and when he later heard Tennessee Williams’ song “Glass Menagerie” on the radio. In an earlier interview, İleri stated that he aimed to bridge tradition and new trends. “At first in my career I did not do it on purpose … but later on I felt very happy to recall past writers in our society, and this has become something like a mission. In our society we do not get to see this trend a lot. Other Western societies, on the other hand, do everything to preserve their traditions and make their traditions live forever,” he said.

It is nice to see history in TV series

Abdullah Gül also commented on the latest TV series discussions. Gül said: “In the recent years we see that Ottoman Empire era become a very popular topic for TV series. This is a very exciting development.” Noting that in cinemas, movies and in TV series society see the historical stories are the inspiration, Gül said it is such a nice thing to see this. Earlier, Erdoğan had heavily criticized Muhteşem Yüzyıl on Nov. 25, for its portrayal of the Ottoman ruler Süleyman the Magnificent.