THE AWARD CEREMONY OF THE 2nd ISTANBUL SHORT FILM COMPETITION FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

The award ceremony of “2nd İstanbul Short Film Competition for High School Students” was held in Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Cemal Resit Rey Concert Hall under the auspices of Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagis.

The competition focused on the theme “Fight Against Piracy and Protection of Copyrights” and it was organized with the cooperation of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, İstanbul Governorate and TURSAK Foundation. A total of 12 prizes were awarded in the ceremony.

Speaking in the award ceremony, Bagis thanked the high school students for reflecting their imaginations to their works and for also their contributions to the fight against piracy. Mentioning about the inspiring atmosphere of Istanbul, Bagis said: “Istanbul is the only city located in both continents. It is the only city where the sea crosses across. Istanbul had been the capital of 3 world empires. It is the only city which is the European capital of culture and the European capital of sports.”

Bagis stated: “Encouraging the young people in many fields is something that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan charged us.” Bagis said that he wanted to overcome the issue ‘fight against piracy’. Bagis stated the following:

“The moment when there is no difference between intellectual property and physical property, Turkey will have achieved the European standards. There is no difference between stealing one’s property or ideas. We should explain that there is no difference between them. Today, the young students put forth an example of courage. They emphasized their difference. It is not important at all who will be the first. For me, today the winner is Turkey. The winner is the process of rendering Turkey a contemporary country in EU standards.

Today, we are contributing Turkey in its efforts to fight against piracy. I have no doubt that we have taken the first step of a great victory to get rid of this social problem.”