Polish Charge d'affairs in Ankara takes part in Anadolu Agency's Photo of the Year vote

By Muhammet Tarhan

ANKARA (AA) - The Charge d'Affairs of the Polish Embassy in Ankara participated in Anadolu Agency's "Photo of the Year" voting on Wednesday.

Radoslaw Sadowski voted in the News, Sports, Environment and Life categories.

In the News category, Sadowski chose "On the firing line," "Face of war," "Voyage of grain," and "A mother's precious."

Sadowski said that "On the firing line," which was taken by Emin Sansar during the evacuation of civilians from Ukraine to Poland, showed "Russia's aggression" against that country.

"For us, the Russian aggression in Ukraine was the most important and the most challenging event this year," he said, underlining that Poland was also thoroughly involved in the conflict.

"We fully support Ukraine. We also provide a lot of assistance and also host a lot of Ukrainians who escaped the country and moved to Poland," he said.

In the Environment-Life category, Sadowski voted for "Moment of life-or-death" and "Aerial firefighting."

Commenting on "Moment of life-or-death," a scene captured by Aytac Unal​​​​​​ showing a newborn baby being cradled in the basement of a medical ward used as a shelter in Kyiv, Sadowski stressed the "faith of Ukrainians who suffer the Russian aggression."

On the image of plane in Türkiye's southwestern Mugla province intervening to control a forest fire in "Aerial firefighting," he said it reminded him of the "bilateral cooperation between Poland and Türkiye" and noted his country's past assistance to control fires in Turkish woodlands.

"We're happy to assist our Turkish friends," he said.

Sadowski, voted for "Sultans of the world" in Sports, said of the photo that volleyball was a sport that connected Türkiye and Poland. The photo shows the players of Turkish side VakifBank Istanbul celebrating their victory in the 2022 CEV Women's Champions League Volley against Italian Carraro Imoco Conegliano.

In the same category, he also chose "Swimmer," a "powerful" scene that shows a determined Muhammed Ali Bicer, seven years old and born with no legs and only one arm, as he works on his skills in a pool in northwestern Türkiye.

Photos of the year will be chosen among the 85 most impressive photos taken by Anadolu Agency photojournalists and reporters on a variety of subjects.

Images that defined 2022 include war, politics, sports, and current events that have had a significant effect on Türkiye and the world and are frequently used in significant international media outlets.

This year, Environment and Life was added as a third category to the annual voting as a new initiative by Anadolu Agency in recent years to increase environmental awareness.

Annual voting for Photo of the Year competition, which Anadolu Agency hosted for the first time in 2012, is attended by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as well as ministers, lawmakers, bureaucrats, athletes, and artists. A total of 312,136 people cast votes in 2021.

Voting will continue on photosoftheyear.aa.com.tr until 5 p.m. loca​​​​l time (1400GMT) Jan. 16.

*Writing by Zehra Nur Duz.