Awards for Reconciliaton
The Encouraging of National Reconciliation Awards was made at ceremonies organized by the Journalists' and Writers' Foundation. Its honorary chairman is Fethullah Gülen, widely known as Fethullah Hodja. The Night for Encouraging National Reconciliation, held at the Hilton Convention Center and hosted by Professor Mim Kemal oke, began with the singing of the Independence March and everyone standing at attention.
After a video display entitled We're One Family, the awards were presented to their recipients: Hulya Kocyigit, Gulay Gokturk, Riza Zelyut, Nevval Sevindi, and sahin ozer in the Media-Arts category; to Istanbul University Theological Faculty Dean Professor Nuri ozturk, Professor Nilufer Gole, Professor Halil Inalcik, Professor Ihsan Dogramaci, and singer Sezen Aksu's father Sami yildirim (founder and principal of the Private Yamanlar College) in the Education-Culture category; and Professor serif Mardin, who received an award in this category but was unable to attend due to ill health.
Turk-Is General Chairman Bayram Meral and businessmen uzeyir Garih and Nihat Gokyigit were presented awards in the Business World category, as were businessman Sakip Sabanci and Aydin Dogan, owner of the Hurriyet and Milliyet newspapers, respectively (they were not able to attend). In their places awards were accepted by Sabanci Holding General Secretary Ertugrul Ergoz and Hurriyet Newspaper executive council member Yasar Eroglu.
Chairman of the Turkish Parliament Hikmet cetin and DSP General Chairman and Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit, who were deemed worthy of awards in the politics category, did not attend due to government budgetary meetings. The award to the former chairman of the Turkish Parliament, Mustafa Kalem, was accepted by his wife. The "Man of the State" award was presented to Suleyman Demirel.
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