Anadolu Agency (AA) on Tuesday opened an exhibition in the central train station in the capital Ankara where award-winning news photographs of the international Istanbul Photo Awards 2019 are exhibited.

The exhibition provides passers-by with an opportunity to take a glance at the most successful images of the international photography contest, which has been held annually since 2015 with the participation of some 100,000 entries.

"As the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, we welcome such efforts and works and see [exhibitions] as a significant part of our cultural life," said Deputy Culture and Tourism Minister Serdar Çam.

The photographs — which depict various events and incidents such as migration, natural disasters, people's struggles across the world were meaningful and the exhibition selection was a total success, he added.

Editor-in-Chief Metin Mutanoğlu said the photo contest encouraged photographers across the world's top contributions, adding the AA's Istanbul Photo Awards has proved itself a prestigious contest worldwide. Mutanoğlu thanked Turkish Airlines and the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TİKA) for their contributions to the international photo contest.

The winner of this year's the Photo of the Year award was a photograph taken by Agence France-Presse's (AFP) Ahmad Gharabli, which depicted a Palestinian woman retaliating at an Israeli soldier's attempt to take her photo during protests against the U.S. decision to move its embassy to Jerusalem.