By Islamuddin Sajid

ISLAMABAD (AA) - Pakistani lawmaker Mushahid Hussain Sayed lauded President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Turkish people for standing with the oppressed people of Palestine, as he voted in News category of Anadolu's Photos of the Year competition on Friday.

Sayed, who chairs the Senate’s standing committee on defense, voted for Murat Kula's photograph titled Support to Palestine, which shows thousands of people gathered in Istanbul for the Great Palestine rally on Oct. 28, 2023. The event at the Ataturk Airport was addressed by Erdogan.

"It's a sea of people and it's not just a state policy, the policy of the people of Türkiye to support Palestine," he told Anadolu in Islamabad.

The senator added that the Istanbul rally shows “expression of support and solidarity with the oppressed Palestinians today and this is a sentiment which is reflected in the Muslim world and also in the West.”

While commenting on photos in Gaza: Evidence category, he lauded Anadolu photojournalists for showing the "real situation" and the "plight and suffering" of Palestinians in the blockaded enclave to the world.

Israeli attacks in Gaza since the Oct. 7 Hamas incursion have killed more than 22,000 people, and has left the territory in ruins.

"I would like to commend Anadolu the way it has captured the human suffering of the Palestinians in Gaza. And the brutality, the barbarism of the Israeli occupation army, which has been killing civilians, children, women and men," said Sayed, a former editor and journalist.

Anadolu photojournalists captured the use of lethal weapons by Israeli forces on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. South Africa, which has filed a genocide case against Tel Aviv at the International Court of Justice, submitted photos by the Turkish news agency to argue its case, which will be heard next week.

"The high costs of this aggression by Israel has been presented brilliantly by Anadolu photographers," Sayed said, adding: “This has been very well highlighted. So, it has given a human face to the conflict."

He also voted for Emin Sansar's photo, In the presence of Ataturk, in which a girl wearing a Turkish flag cape visits Anitkabir, the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Türkiye, to mark the 100th anniversary of the Turkish Republic, in Ankara last year.

"I feel that In the presence of Ataturk is a powerful photograph because it shows the love respect and adulation for the founder of modern Turkey," he said.

In the sports category, Sayed voted for Elif Ozturk Ozgoncu's photograph, Is it over? Or should I continue?, in which Spanish athlete Enrique Llopis gets injured while competing in the Men`s 60m hurdles during the 2023 European Indoor Athletics Championships at the Atakoy Arena in Istanbul on March 5, 2023.

"This is a very sharp photograph, which is not just about sports, but it graphically captures that sports is a very human element. There are winners there are losers," he said.