Cumhurbaşkanlığı Kültür ve Sanat Büyük Ödülleri Töreni (2025) is the 2025 presentation program of the Presidency Culture and Art Grand Awards, conferred under the patronage of the President of the Republic of Türkiye to outstanding individuals and works in the fields of culture, art, and science. The ceremony was held on 18 December 2025 at the Beştepe National Congress and Culture Center in Ankara.
The ceremony was attended by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. During the event, awards were presented to individuals representing diverse disciplines in science, culture, art, and media. Biographical videos of the recipients were shown, and the laureates were introduced on stage by the President.
Venue and Date of the Ceremony
The ceremony took place on 18 December 2025 at the Beştepe National Congress and Culture Center in Ankara. Prior to the event, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan received the award recipients at the Presidential Complex.
Recipients of the 2025 Presidency Culture and Art Grand Awards
Science and Culture Award
Painting Award
Music Award
Archaeology Award
Photography Award
- Ali Jadallah (Palestinian journalist and photographer, Anadolu Agency photo correspondent)
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Ceremony Speech
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in his address at the ceremony, congratulated the award recipients and offered reflections on the selection process.
Erdoğan: "On behalf of myself and our nation, I thank the recipients who have transformed their inner visions through the filter of their hearts into invaluable works for our country and the world. I also congratulate the members of the selection committee for their meticulous and sensitive evaluation process that identified these worthy individuals. At the outset of my words, I wish to specifically mention two distinguished recipients of the Culture and Art Grand Awards whom we recently lost to eternity. I honor with respect the poet Yavuz Bülent Bakiler, who passed away on 28 September, and the revered ney master Niyazi Sayın, and I pray for their mercy from Almighty God. As a nation, we are truly indebted to these two treasures, and we will never forget them, always remembering them with gratitude. Though our losses have left one side of us shedding leaves, the other side, praise be to God, continues to bloom, blossom, and reach for new heights."
Recalling the presentation of the 2025 Science and Culture Award to Prof. Dr. Süleyman Seyfi Öğün, Erdoğan said: "Professor Süleyman Seyfi Öğün is one of our rare academics who never severed the connection between his library and the roaring world beyond. His works, which examine changes in politics, economics, philosophy, society, and culture from multiple perspectives, are both comprehensive and profound. When we study his writings, we can trace the evolution of our intellectual tradition up to the present day. I congratulate our professor and wish him many more contributions to our body of knowledge and thought."
Recalling the Painting Award recipient, painter Yalçın Gökçebağ, Erdoğan said: "In his half-century artistic journey, Yalçın Gökçebağ has carried Anatolia into painting and painting into Anatolia. He has transformed the legacy inherited from the first generation of Republican painters into new perceptions and perspectives on canvas. In his paintings, where colors are almost transformed into poetry, the voice of this land is heard. The beauty of humanity and nature is read in his lines. With his original, vibrant, and fairy-tale-like works, Yalçın Gökçebağ holds a significant place in Turkish painting, and I wholeheartedly congratulate him."
Regarding the Music Award presented to Prof. Dr. Yalçın Tura, Erdoğan noted: "Professor Tura, one of the living legends of Turkish music, has enriched countless films and television series with his compositions. Our professor, trained by masters such as Cemal Reşit Rey, Seyfettin Asal, and Demirhan Atlı, has made invaluable contributions to both the science of music and Turkish music theory. By establishing the Music Department of the Turkish Music State Conservatory at Istanbul Technical University, he gifted our nation a distinguished educational institution. For all the values he has bestowed upon Turkish music through his academic works and beloved compositions, I thank him."
President Erdoğan, presenting the Archaeology Award to Prof. Dr. Fahri Işık, stated: "Fahri Işık, a scholar from Malatya who has gifted Turkey and world archaeology, has systematically uncovered errors long accepted as truth in excavation science. Through his books, articles, and research, he has shed light on the thousands of years of rich history of Anatolia. Often living in tents or village houses at excavation sites, he has brought to light rare artifacts from numerous ancient cities, including Patara. I sincerely congratulate Professor Fahri Işık for his groundbreaking contributions to Turkish archaeology and honor him for the paradigm-shifting work he has accomplished."
Erdoğan, announcing that the Photography Award would be given to Palestinian journalist and photographer Ali Jadallah, said: "My brother Ali, whose lens exposed the savage genocide in Gaza to the entire world over two years, is also our Anadolu Agency’s field photo correspondent. The images from his frame do not merely reveal the horrific scale of the massacre in Gaza but also bring to the global agenda the just, dignified, and honorable resistance of the Palestinian people in all their grandeur. His photographs stirred international public opinion and were presented as evidence in the case brought by the Republic of South Africa against Israel at the International Court of Justice. I congratulate my brother Ali Jadallah on behalf of myself, my nation, and all the oppressed for risking his life to document the injustice in Gaza through photography. On this occasion, I also remember with reverence the 37 women and 283 journalists killed by Israel solely for holding cameras to the brutality in Gaza. Today, once again, I salute with respect the heroic struggle of journalists murdered mercilessly by Israel."
Emphasizing that "despite the Israeli government’s attempts to silence and obstruct, conscientious hearts and genuine journalists continue to expose everything happening in Palestine at the cost of their lives," Erdoğan added: "As a country and administration that has made the cry for justice our slogan, we stand upright beside the Palestinian people, without bending or yielding. Turkish media institutions, led by TRT and Anadolu Agency, demonstrated extraordinary courage during the Gaza genocide. Last week, our Presidency of Communication published a book titled 'The War of Journalism Against Israel’s Massacre in Gaza' to document the sacrifices of journalists killed in Gaza. We will continue our struggle on all fronts with determination to ensure that the events in Gaza are never forgotten and that justice is realized."
President Erdoğan stated that "the human being is in itself a masterpiece of art," noting that since ancient times, humans have regarded every object, situation, sound, and color they encountered on earth as material for art.
Erdoğan affirmed that "the human family, through its genius and artistic spirit, has created an immense artistic heritage. The cultural and civilizational climate we inherit today is our shared richness, built by great artists. This richness is also the result of the idea of continuity. Undoubtedly, one of the strongest proofs of human suffering, joy, and the struggle for existence is culture and art. As long as humanity exists, art will exist. As long as people live, art will live, renew itself, discover new horizons, and continue to recreate itself."
Reciting verses from Arif Nihat Asya’s poem "San’at": "You create marble. I build palaces from it. You cut and harvest the reed you planted in water and make a ney. You send me a reed. I clean it, decorate it, and build a pavilion. I make the moon from my orphaned tongue on my flag. Just give me the material, and I will surely create something," Erdoğan said that architecture, music, poetry, painting, and the art of language are all summaries of humanity’s effort to understand the world and beyond. "Art is art because it makes the world more meaningful," President Erdoğan continued:
"Art is art because it adds value to humanity and elevates it. Art is art because it gives us a passion, imagination, and emotion that nothing else can provide. Precisely for this reason, art does not divide—it unites. But here, a crucial truth must be emphasized: every great poet and writer of Turkish is a source of our national pride. All our enlightened minds who have produced works in language, culture, art, thought, and architecture are our guiding stars. Just as we cannot imagine Edirne without Selimiye or Istanbul without Süleymaniye, we cannot imagine Türkiye without Mimar Sinan. We cannot envision Turkish music without Itri, Dede Efendi, Şevki Bey, Sadettin Kaynak, Neşet Ertaş, and many other great names. Turkish poetry, from Yunus Emre to Karacaoğlan, from Fuzuli to Mehmet Akif, from Nedim to Yahya Kemal, from Nefi to Nazım Hikmet, from Şeyh Galip to Sezai Karakoç, is not only the charter of our language but also the deed of our national sentiment. This deep-rooted heritage in science, culture, and art will, God willing, continue for centuries to nourish the world’s cultural and artistic legacy."
Erdoğan drew attention to "the era we are passing through, in which globalization has brought cultural homogenization under its influence," and stated: "We can escape this press that encourages unlimited consumption in every field and renders humans passive only by holding fast to our roots. Art nourished by our own heritage and accumulation will, as it were, act as a wave breaker against this wave of homogenization."
He added: "I say this particularly because when we look at the influence and reach of many popular films, series, and musical works today, we all see the transformative power of art. The uniformity of artistic tastes—just like the homogenization of consumption habits, lifestyles, food culture, and clothing—poses a serious threat to art itself. It crushes originality and excellence. Standardization and homogenization threaten the human nature’s inherent diversity and the freedom of the artist. Art is undoubtedly personal and sacred. But the global consumption machine, which promotes everything it encounters and makes everyone resemble each other, not only erases human uniqueness but also forces individual talents through the same mold. Neoliberal culture, with its ever-changing daily 'trends' as new sacred idols, destroys many beauties of humanity."
Speaking of "the millions of poems, books, songs, paintings, and cinema films generated by artificial intelligence today, where the distinction between the real and the virtual has largely vanished," Erdoğan said: "It is a fact that every trend that excludes national identity, national culture, values, ideals, virtues, and ethics is doomed to superficiality. Unfortunately, we too cannot stand before this global storm with works that lack depth and originality, produced and consumed daily."
Using the phrase "In global cultural struggles, we must blend our local and national cultural values with a universal perspective, recreate them, and rebuild them," the President added: "As a politician, I certainly know this is never easy and requires immense effort and dedication. But we have more than enough capacity, heritage, and resources to do it. I believe that our artists, thinkers, and enlightened cultural figures, who have always served as guides to society, will show us the way out of this press, as they have throughout history. Frankly, I appeal to you. I wish to reiterate here that every one of our citizens, regardless of their views, has a place above our heads—those who have laid stone upon stone for science, art, literature, thought, and culture. With the support of our cultural, artistic, and scientific figures who remain rooted in their homeland while sailing toward the universal, who dream for their country and nation, and who never break under the harshest criticism, we will, God willing, carry forward this struggle."
