ITO 140th Anniversary Special Awards find their owners

The Istanbul Chamber of Commerce, the umbrella organization of Istanbul’s business world with nearly 700,000 members, celebrated the 140th anniversary of its founding with an award ceremony held at the Haliç Congress Center, hosted by ITO President Şekib Avdagiç, with the participation of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Minister of Treasury and Finance Nureddin Nebati, Minister of Trade Mehmet Muş and the President of the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB) Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu, along with numerous guests. Among those attending the ceremony was TÜROB (Association of Turkish Hoteliers) President Müberra Eresin.

The ITO 140th Anniversary Special Awards found their owners in 6 categories: "Tourism," "Restoration," "Culture and Arts," "Technology," "Entrepreneurship" and "Transformation." The awards were presented by President Erdoğan and ITO President Avdagiç. In the "Tourism" category, the Doğuş Group with the Galataport Project; in the "Restoration" category, the Fatih Municipality with the restoration of the Yedikule Dungeons, which keep Ottoman and Byzantine architecture alive together; in the "Culture and Arts" category, Bozdağ Film, which has brought historical awareness to the agenda of the new generation and of Türkiye with magnificent productions; in the "Technology" category, the late Özdemir Bayraktar, who wrote his name in golden letters in the history of Turkish aviation and defense; in the "Entrepreneurship" category, the company Appsilon for producing diamonds using a new technique; and in the "Transformation" category, Rector Prof. Dr. Handan İnci Elçi, who made permanent the 15,000 works of Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University at the Istanbul Painting and Sculpture Museum, were deemed worthy of the award.