The Mehmet Akif İnan Awards, organized for the fifth time this year by the Mehmet Akif İnan Foundation, were presented to their owners at the ceremony.
The most meaningful of the awards given in the name of Akif İnan, who won hearts with his Aqsa poem, was given to Palestinian children.
The Mehmet Akif İnan Awards, organized for the fifth time this year by the Mehmet Akif İnan Foundation in order to keep the memory of Memur-Sen Founding Chairman Mehmet Akif İnan alive and to keep his intellectual and spiritual heritage alive, found their owners at a ceremony held in Ankara Kızılcahamam.
“WE WOULD NOT BE AT THIS POINT WITHOUT THE STRUGGLE OF OUR IDEAS MEN”
Participating in the program, Minister of Labor and Social Security Prof. Dr. Vedat Işıkhan stated that Mehmet Akif İnan sets an example for generations with the ideas and actions he put forward.
"We have always respected him as a poet, educator, trade unionist and action-minded thinker; I remember our esteemed president and teacher Akif İnan with mercy, gratitude and respect on the anniversary of his death. Believing that we cannot truly protect our values, future and claims unless we protect culture, literature and art, we have struggled to keep the memories of our thinkers, poets and writers alive at every opportunity. Today, we are reaping the fruits of the seeds they planted in our cultural world and the fruits of their struggle. Of course, it is also a fact that we need to take much stronger steps on this issue. Because we know that, as Turkey, we are not just Turkey," Işıkhan said.
“His name is kept alive throughout Turkey”
Mehmet Akif İnan Foundation President Hıdır Yıldırım, "Mehmet Akif İnan is aware of the secret that has caused the poet who said, "I lived silently, how will anyone know me?" to hold such a place in the hearts of the nation. He knows that no one who is equipped with the values of the nation, who is worried about the troubles of the nation, whose heart is full of love for the nation and whose excitement is national feelings will not be left to engagement. Today, we all see that the real life of Mehmet Akif İnan, with the union he left behind that produces services as charity, his students, his works, and his ideas, is more fruitful, more effective, and more productive in terms of the provisions of the afterlife, than his mortal life. Today, Mehmet Akif İnan's name lives on in nearly 50 schools across Turkey," he said.
AWARD TO OUR AUTHOR HAKSAL AND PALESTINIAN CHILDREN
After the protocol speeches, the awards in 6 categories met with their winners.
While the Working Life and Labor Award was presented to the mine workers who showed outstanding service during the earthquakes of February 6, 2023, centered in Kahramanmaraş, the winner of the special jury award was the Palestinian children who were subjected to genocide by Zionist Israel.
The Culture, Art and Literature Award was given to Ali Haydar Haksal, storyteller, Editor-in-Chief of Yedi İklim Magazine and one of our newspaper's writers, while the Loyalty to Outstanding Service Award was given to academician and politician Prof. Dr. Sami Güçlü.
The winner of the International Value Award was British cartoonist and artist Steven William Maclean Bell, while the Achievement and Encouragement Award was awarded to musician and writer Sedat Anar.