The first ever Tarabya Translation Prize will be awarded tomorrow (3 November) by Cornelia Pieper, Minister of State at the Federal Foreign Office, during her visit to Turkey, together with the Turkish Minister of Culture Ertuğrul Günay and representatives of the Robert Bosch Foundation, the S. Fischer Foundation and the Goethe-Institut. The award ceremony will be held in the historical summer residence of the German Ambassador in Istanbul’s Tarabya district.

Minister of State Pieper issued the following statement today (2 November) in Berlin:

“The Tarabya Translation Prize is a marvellous means of enhancing the partnership between Turkey and Germany.Books are keys that allow us to enter and discover other countries and cultures for ourselves.Without translators these keys would remain in the hands of a select few.”

This year the Translation Prize, which is sponsored by Federal Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle and his Turkish counterpart, goes to Ingrid Iren and Ahmet Cemal.Both were honoured for their complete works as translators. Dr Michael Hess and Cemal Ener win the newcomer achievement prize.

The Prize is a joint German-Turkish project under the auspices of the Ernst Reuter Initiative for Intercultural Dialogue and Understanding.The aim is to foster cultural exchange between Germany and Turkey and to highlight the role played by literary translators as cultural bridge-builders.