Genco Erkal and Dostlar Theatre are awarded the 22nd Vehbi Koç Award, which is presented every year to encourage extraordinary people or institutions who have supported or developed our country in the fields of education, culture and health, has been chosen.
Genco Erkal has received the award for his meticulous work in theatre for all those years. On behalf of the Vehbi Koç Board of Directors, The Selection Committee, chaired by Prof. Filiz Ali and composed of Prof. Dikmen Gürün, Ersen Gürsel, Prof. Ahu Antmen and Alin Taşçıyan, chose Genco Erkal and the Dostlar Theatre as winners of the 22nd Vehbi Koç Award among the nominations put forward. Genco Erkal received the award from Koç Holding Board of Directors Chairman, Ömer M. Koç in a ceremony.
Erkal said, “Here today, such beautiful things have been said about me that I felt proud and all that remains is for me to say ‘Thank you’. Thanks also to the friends who praised me to the skies far more than I deserved.’’ Erkal said he owes a big thank you to the members of the selection committee who recommended him for this Award.
Ömer Koç, on the other hand, began his speech by reflecting on the February earthquakes and paying homage to the victims: “Coming together for this meaningful ceremony, organized three years after the pandemic, I would very much like to have been able to address you without sorrow. However, the pain of the dreadful earthquake disaster that we experienced in February is still very fresh. Once more, I wish for God’s mercy on those who lost their lives in this terrible event, give my condolences to their loved ones and wish a speedy recovery to the injured,’’ said Koç.
Koç added: “It is with great pleasure and pride that we present the Vehbi Koç Award in such a meaningful year to a lover of our homeland who is considered a veteran in the field of culture and art, and to a highly valued art institution of which he is one of the founders. Our selection Committee found our esteemed theatre artist Genco Erkal and the Dostlar Theatre worthy of this year’s prize and I heartily congratulate them.”
Koç also highlighted the career of Ertkal saying that, “Besides his 64-year artistic career which has delighted us all, Genco Erkal has been one of the staunch defenders and standard bearers of democracy, human rights and freedom of thought. He has never deviated from the truths he believed in. He has never compromised his socialist rhetoric.’’
The Dostlar Theatre which Genco Erkal founded in 1969 together with Mehmet Akan, Şevket Altuğ, Atilla Alpöge, Ferit Erkal, Arif Erkin Güzelbeyoğlu and Nurten Tunç, who are like himself valued theatre actors, has become one of the exemplary artistic institutions in Turkey, said Koç adding that The Dostlar Theatre, which will celebrate its 55th anniversary next year, has, in spite of all difficulties, kept its curtains open for more than half a century, preserved its critical approach to oppression and censorship and has succeeded in bringing together large sections of the public through the light of the theatre.”
