At the Melih Cevdet Anday Symposium, organized by the Center for Turkish Literature on 24 December 2002, Rector Prof. Ali Doğramacı was proud to announce that a Melih Cevdet Anday Scholarship would be awarded to a student in the Department of Turkish Literature, starting with the academic year 2003-2004. It has now been announced by the department that the first recipient will be Alphan Yusuf Akgül, who is beginning the first year of his master’s program. Akgül, in addition to being a successful student, is a published poet whose work has appeared in numerous literary magazines. He was the winner of the prestigious Yaşar Nabi Nayır Poetry Prize (awarded by Varlık Yayınevi) in 2000.