Erdoğan: A Graphic Biography: The Rise of Turkey's Modern Autocrat by Can Dündar and Anwar, Translated by L.L. Kreider

Winner, 2022 Atomium Comic Strip Prize
A comprehensive graphic biography of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the authoritarian president of Turkey.

One of the world's most divisive and controversial leaders, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has ruled over Turkey as either prime minister or president since 2003. This graphic biography sheds light on the origins of Turkey's most powerful man, from his youth as a budding soccer player to his years spent navigating Turkey's political landscape, including the founding of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in 2001. Author Can Dündar, a Turkish journalist and contributor to the Washington Post now living in exile in Germany, spent several years researching this book.

Situated at the crossroads between Europe and Asia with a population of 84 million, Turkey is a growing economic powerhouse with a geopolitically strategic location. As its leader, the Islamic, conservative Erdoğan has had a polarizing effect on the country's populace; some applaud his economic and political reforms, while others decry his autocratic, iron-fisted rule which has included the jailing of opponents, the crushing of free speech and the rights of LGBTQ+ people and others, and an ongoing war waged against the country's Kurdish minority.

Featuring compelling illustrations by Egyptian-Sudanese comic artist Anwar, the book provides a critical and dramatic context for understanding Erdoğan's convictions and contradictions as a demagogue for whom democracy has been merely a means to power.

Can Dündar is a Turkish journalist and documentary filmmaker and the former editor-in-chief of the Istanbul newspaper Cumhuriyet. He was arrested and imprisoned in 2015 on terrorism and espionage charges and in 2020 was sentenced in absentia to twenty-seven years in prison. One of the most prominent figures in Turkish media, Dündar is the 2016 recipient of the Committee to Protect Journalists' International Press Freedom Award in the US. He has been living in exile in Berlin since June 2016.

Anwar is an Egyptian-Sudanese comic artist and political cartoonist. He was among the new wave of young political cartoonists who emerged in Egypt in the final years of former dictator Hosni Mubarak. The Egyptian revolution that broke out in 2011 was central to Anwar's development as an artist. His work defends the values of social justice, freedom of expression, and equality in Egyptian society; as a result, his cartoons have attracted international attention. After the retraction of political reforms in Egypt in 2011, Anwar was arrested in 2019 and deported. He now lives in Berlin.

Year: 2023

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