President Erdoğan votes in Anadolu's "Images of the Year" photo contest, highlights Gaza

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan took part in selecting the winning entries of Anadolu’s annual “Images of the Year” photo contest on Thursday, reviewing 112 photographs from 2025 during his return flight from an official visit to Egypt. Accompanied by Anadolu’s President and CEO Serdar Karagöz and Communications Director Burhanettin Duran, Erdoğan voted in six categories, including News, Sports, Wildlife and Environment, and a special category titled “Gaza: Starvation.”

Selections with Symbolic Weight

In the Gaza category, Erdoğan chose a photograph by Ali Jadallah, a recipient of the Presidential Culture and Arts Grand Award, which shows food being distributed to Palestinians facing starvation. Last September, at the 80th UN General Assembly, Erdoğan had presented Jadallah’s image among others to illustrate Israel’s actions in Gaza. In the News category, he selected Mustafa Hati̇poğlu’s “Conqueror of the skies,” and in Sports, Esra Bilgin’s shot of national basketball player Alperen Şengün during the FIBA European Championship semifinal.

Contest Details and Public Voting

The competition, organized by Anadolu since 2012, is sponsored by lifebox, Ajet, and ROKETSAN. This year’s edition includes four main categories—News, Wildlife and Environment, Sports, and Daily Life—plus the special categories “Gaza: Starvation” and “Portrait.” Public voting continues on yilinkareleri.aa.com.tr until February 15 at 5 p.m. local time (1400 GMT), allowing participants worldwide to vote for as many photos as they wish.