Bulgarian cartoonist wins first prize at Iranian contest

TEHRAN,Jan.30(MNA) -- Artist Georgiev Valentin from Bulgaria picked up the first prize at the 11th Tabriz Cartoon Contest 2012, winning a $1500 cash prize, a memorial statuette and a three-day trip to Tabriz. Held under the title “economy” this year, the winners were announced during a ceremony held on Saturday in Tabriz. The second and third awards were given to Musa Gumus and Sait Munwr both from Turkey. Ross Thomson from Britain, Alexander Dubovsky from Ukraine, Roman Kubec from the Czech Republic, and Mohsen Asadi and Abolfazl Bahrami from Iran were also among those who were honored. At the cartoon portrait section, the first prize went to Farhad Rahim Qaramaleki from Iran and the second went to Jairo Linares from Colombia. Esmaeil Bidardel from Iran also got the third prize. Artists from 38 countries took part in the 11th edition of the contest this year. A selection of 126 works was also collected for a future exhibition. Dmytro Skazhenyk from Ukraine, Muhittin Koroglu from Turkey and Ali Jahanshahi from Iran were the jury members this year.