JWF Coexistence Awards Largely Honors Turkey's Minorities

GYV's 4th Coexistence Awards

The Journalists and Writers Foundation (GYV) has largely honored Turkey's minority groups and oppressed voices with its landmark 4th Coexistence Awards in the hope to give a stimulus to those promoting, despite scarce resources yet in a sustained effort, peaceful coexistence.

The awards ceremony attracted thousands of spectators, including officials, intellectuals and public figures, who expressed on Sunday night in İstanbul's Congress Center solidarity and approval with laud standing ovation for little heard but awarded for their courageous strides in a bid to mitigate animosity and rebuild peace and coexistence.

Notions of peaceful coexistence Mustafa Yeşil, chairman of GYV, stressed in his opening speech, illustrated the prevailing theme of the night, where mostly minority groups in Turkey received awards for their outstanding works laden with symbolic significance that may help promote coexistence Turkish public has longing for for.

The Sunday's awards ceremony was 4th of its kind, the last being presented in 2010 and the first in 1995. The related Twitter hashtag #birlikteyaşamaödülleri has been one of the top trending topics of the night, which was live broadcast by Mehtap TV.

The GYV was founded in 1994, and the mission and work of the foundation is inspired by GYV Honorary President Fethullah Gülen. Gülen, known for his teachings of hizmet (service), tolerance and dialogue, has attracted a large number of supporters in Turkey and Central Asia and increasingly in other parts of the world.

The highest level public official blessed the evening with his messages of peace and dialogue was Cemil Çiçek, speaker of the Turkish Parliament, who condemned violent practices for expression of grievances and pointed to democracy channels he said was "still open."

"Solitude belongs only to God," Çiçek underlined, adding that people have no right to choose their race, land, family and culture. The speaker said the most important task assigned to people is to make the life more beautiful and conflict among people over things they didn't choose "makes no sense."

Çiçek blamed lack of love among people for being the chief culprit in sewing the seeds of animosity and said people in Turkey cannot display shared efforts to make each other happy.

Çiçek said it is compulsory for everyone to maintain peace and added that "our shared identity is that we are all human. The rest of the things are just details."

The first award, honoring a renowned professor in the category of Scientific Research, went to Nilüfer Göle. The Paris-based sociology professor, Göle, is known for a number of research projects and books on the subject of Islam and Europe. She is currently teaching at L'Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS) in Paris and author of several books that have been published in several languages.

İstanbul Governor Hüseyin Avni Mutlu presented the award to Göle, who said one needs to be sensitive to injustice others are victim of.

The jury who selected Göle and other awardees included the Rabbinate and a honorary leader of the Jewish community Bensiyon Pinto, Roma Associations Federation President Erdinç Çekiç, movie star Hülya Koçyiğit, History professor Mete Tunçay, author Mıgırdıç Margosyan, Yeşil, Türk Ocakları Chairman Nuri Gürgür, Kurdish intellectual and author Orhan Miroğlu, theology professor Ömer Faruk Harman, renowned writer of Alevi origin Reha Çamuroğlu, journalist and writer Taha Akyol and professor Toktamış Ateş.

The Literature Award, given to Turkey's bestseller author Elif Şafak in 2010, was presented to Hilmi Yavuz – poet, philosopher and Zaman daily columnist.

The jury decided to present this year's Print Media Award to Armenian weekly Agos, whose editor-in-chief Hrant Dink was murdered in front of his office in 2007, largely driven from its recent top story, slamming anti-Islam movie that denigrated Prophet Muhammad.

The Visual Media Award went to Dünya TV, a local TV station based in Gaziantep on the Syria border, which is also the only private TV channel broadcasting in Kurdish. Çiçek presented the award to the chief of the TV channel, which was broadcasting Kurdish programs that promoted peace and coexistence.

Exemplary Behavior and/or Initiatives in the Public Sphere Award was presented to students of Mümtaz Turhan Social Sciences and Private Getronagan Armenian High School with their outstanding project called Aşure/Anuşabur. A group of Turkish and Armenian students launched a project to travel across Turkey and meet other cultures and see if they could coexist together.

The students received the awards from Zaman Editor-in-Chief Ekrem Dumanlı and Koçyiğit. The Zaman chief said the youth in 1980th were subjects of "futile conflicts" and added that those who survived understood that these conflicts are useless.

Turkcell CEO Süreyya Ciliv said his company will award one year Turkcell credit for students free of charge.

Antakya Civilizations Chorus, which contributes to "brotherly coexistence" with their songs, was presented Visual, Auditory Arts and Stage Arts.

Two Social and Cultural Understanding Award went to Saliba Özmen, the metropolitan or bishop of the nearby city of Mardin and Chairman of Veysel Karani Foundation in Batman, 86-year-old Hacı Mirza Demir.

Jury Special Award went to Monsignor Georges Marovitch, a former Vatican diplomatic official in Turkey, who died this March.

Grand National Unity Party leader Mustafa Destici, Mutlu, İstanbul mayor Kadir Topbaş, Fatih mayor Mustafa Demir were among the participants.

Published on Journalists and Writers Foundation, 12 November 2012, Monday

Posted in: Coexistence, Dialogue, Fethullah Gulen, Gulen Movement, Journalists and Writers Foundation, Turkey