Jury

Fırat Yurdakul graduated from Hacettepe University with a Bachelor's Degree in History. He began his journalism career as a reporter for the Sabah newspaper in 1997. Then, he transferred to Anadolu Agency (AA) in 2001 and worked there as a press photographer for a long time. During the course of his photojournalist career, he covered many wars, conflicts, and natural disaster zones such as the Syrian Civil War, the Second Libyan Civil War, the Afghan War, the Somali and Egyptian protests, unrest in Kyrgyzstan, the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, and the Marmara earthquake. Currently, Mr. Yurdakul, who holds many Turkey-based press photography awards, serves as Anadolu Agency Visual News Director. Moreover, he has been conducting press photography classes at various universities, NGOs and at the AA News Academy.