President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan attended the 2018 Presidential Culture and Arts Grand Awards Ceremony at the Presidential Complex.

During the awards ceremony, President Erdoğan presented their awards to Professor Mehmet İpşirli in the field of history and social sciences; to Türker İnanoğlu in the field of cinema; to Erol Sayan in the field of music; to İzzet Keribar in the field of arts/photography; and to Selma Argun on behalf of her grandfather Mehmet Akif Ersoy who was posthumously granted the Culture and Arts Loyalty Award.

"Culture and arts are an important pillar of Turkiye’s visions for 2053 and 2071"

Delivering a speech before the award presentation ceremony, President Erdoğan said the awards are granted as a sign of the nation and state’s thanks and appreciation to people from the world of culture and arts.

"I extend my gratitude to these treasured people of ours from the world of culture and arts for the contributions they have made in their own fields to our country and nation’s great journey from the past to the future," he added.

Underlining that the culture of a nation, just like its soil, flag, army, and currency, is one of the symbols of its independence, President Erdoğan noted: “When we look at the strongest countries in the world, we see that they have achieved this status of theirs through their cultural strength rather than their armies."

"Today, the culture industry has got to such a level that there is no place in the world that it has not entered, reached and influenced. We see this influence in every area from cinema to music, from clothing to technology and architecture. This very reality requires us to fling ourselves into our policies of culture and arts." President Erdoğan added that culture and arts are an important pillar of Turkiye’s visions for 2053 and 2071.

ILKHA