Our first annual Award for Courage in Editorial Cartooning was given to Turkish cartoonist Doğan Guzel in June of 1999. The prior July Doğan received a 40 month prison sentence for drawing a cartoon that called the state “weak”, and for publishing his cartoons in the Kurdish language. He served one year of that sentence. Learn about Dogan’s plight in our Eastern Europe section of our Art to Die For collection.
On 31 July 1998 Güzel was arrested and charged for alleged defamation and threat to the state and the armed forces. The prosecution on the basis that four, from May 1993 to October 1993 published cartoons in the Özgür Gündem where Güzel the term “lax Turkish Republic” as used in a satirical manner. Güzel was sentenced for these caricatures of 10 months, for a total of 40 months imprisonment. According to the Law 4454 of 28 August 1999, which makes it possible to suspend fines and the journalists for three years on probation, as well as due to massive protests of international journalists’ associations (including Reporters Without Borders ), was Doğan Güzel by President Süleyman Demirel pardoned and on 16 . September 1999 together with the sentenced to 100 years in prison writer Ismail Beşikçi released.
Güzel worked for issued from May 1992 pro-Kurdish newspaper Özgür Gündem . He developed the cartoon character Qirix (Kırık). The Qirix stories were published daily in the Özgür Gündem and after its closure in the succession newspaper Özgür Ülke. They acted as a satirical companion of the violent rich conflict in the Kurdish regions of Turkey.
The newspaper Özgür Gündem was exposed in Turkey for alleged violations of anti-terror laws and the promotion of separatism repeated reprisals, there were numerous killings of journalists and their sellers, and attacks on the publisher. Following a bomb attack on the editorial Istanbul and Ankara in December 1994, she was finally set.
In April 2000, Güzel was imprisoned again.
Due to the strained against him court proceedings Güzel left Turkey, and now lives in Spain. He has been a regular contributor to the daily Kurdish newspaper Yeni Özgür Politika, and his Kurdish cartoon character QIRIX is a regular feature in the newspaper Özgür Gündem
Doğan Güzel has also made illustrations, for example, for the 1998’s historical novel “Ataların Karşılaşması” by Cemal Resid Ahmed ( ISBN 9789757112204 ).
A recent cartoon featuring Mr Güzel’s well-known Kurdish character Qirix
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