Girne Municipality and Cyprus Turkish Cartoonists’ Association are organising an International Olive Humour Festival as part of the 11th International Cartoon competition and the 21st Olive Festival.
Jury members of the Cartoon competition were announced on Monday 6th June at a press conference held at the Grand Pasha Hotel.
Speaking on behalf of the Cyprus Turkish Cartoonists’ Association Hüseyin Çakmak said, due to the pandemic they had not been able to invite international jurists for the last two years. Only 2 cartoonists from Türkiye were part of the jury last year. He was happy to report that this year the competition was being held with an international jury once again.
Girne Mayor Nidai Güngördü, said that 179 cartoonists from 50 countries were participating in the contest with 488 pieces of work at this Olive Festival. He expressed his pride that the competition launched by the Municipality and the Association had turned into one that was approved and appreciated by the international cartoonists community. The jury would set to work at the conclusion of the press conference. He also wished that we would never have to live through another such a pandemic that had deeply affected the whole world and caused so many deaths. It had been impossible to hold the competition in its usual intended way during the last two years.
They were conscious of the importance and power of the arts and had been working to promote artistic culture and spread it in the community from the day they took charge of Girne Municipality. This competition was organised because in all art forms caricature art had a special place and the power to influence.
The arts and artists played a very important role in the development of a culture of love, tolerance and peace in a society and the greatest need in our region was to spread that culture. If children were guided towards the arts from an early age it would be possible for it to take root. He thanked everyone who had contributed to the cartoon competition.
In finishing his speech Güngördü remembered Latif Demirci, a world famous Turkish cartoonist who had passed away yesterday 5th June and led a one minute silence in his memory.
The jury of the 11th International Cartoon Competition:
- Spiro Radulovic from Serbia,
- Marian Avramescu from Romania,
- Saeed Sadeghi from Iran,
- Aşkın Arancıoğlu, Sevda Deniz Anıl and Mehmet Selçuk from the Republic of Türkiye,
- Nidai Güngördü, Serhan Gazioğlu, Hüseyin Çakmak, Selen Selışık, Derman Atik and Musa Kayra from the TRNC.
Members of the jury took to the stage and congratulated Girne Municipality for organising the competition and expressed their satisfaction in taking part.
Later on at the meeting, cartoonists who had not yet received their awards due to pandemic restrictions in the 2020 and 2021 competitions, were presented with them.
Unnamed photos of prize winners courtesy of Girne Municipality.
Iranian cartoonist Ali Rastoo, had won the Grand Prize in the ‘free subject’ section of the 9th International Cartoon competition held in 2020.
In 2021 at the 10th competition, in the same section, the Golden Olive prize and the Special Girne Mayor’s Award were won by Aşkın Ayrancıoğlu.
In the same year in the ‘Olive’ themed section Serbian cartoonist Spiro Radulovic received the Silver Olive prize together with the Cyprus Turkish Cartoonists’ award.
Muammer Kotbaş’s Grand Prize award in the 2020 ‘Olive’ themed competition was accepted by Aşkın Ayrancıoğlu in his absence.
The jury started their deliberations soon after the meeting. Evaluations of the 488 cartoons will be completed by Wednesday the 8th of June and displayed for a week before the provisional results are announced.
Winners of the 11th International Cartoon Contest will receive their awards in October at the 21st Olive Festival.
Cartoonists from among the jury members will meet with lovers of the art at a Cartoon Drawing Workshop open to citizens on Wednesday, 8th June, at 18.00 in the Ramadan Cemil Square, Girne.
Source (Turkish): Girne Municipality
