More than 2,500 cartoons by 865 artists from 73 countries were submitted to the competition’s 27th edition. The competition’s international jury, headed by Canada’s Terry Mosher, also honored Russia’s Sergei Bobylev with second prize and Turkey’s Kürşat Zaman with third. The winning cartoons were selected from among 188 entries by 172 cartoonists from 42 countries eligible for awards, the Anatolia news agency reported.Öztürklevent’s winning cartoon depicts the Western Wall in Jerusalem with a line of believers praying at its base, while a line of Israeli soldiers stands on top of the wall with guns pointed, at the ready.
The winning cartoon will receive a cash prize of $8,000 while the second prize comes with a cash prize of $5,000 and the third with $3,500.
The award-winning cartoons, along with the other 185 cartoons that ran in the competition’s final round, went on display on Wednesday in an exhibition that runs until June 5 at Antalya’s IC Airport Hotel. The Antalya exhibition, for the past 16 years, has been kicking off a traveling exhibition of the winning cartoons across several Turkish cities throughout the year. This year’s selection is also expected to go on public display in several provinces, including İstanbul and İzmir. Winners will collect their trophies andj cash prizes in a ceremony in October in İstanbul.
