Comics as an eyewitness

For years, I’ve used comics to explore human rights issues and respond to the events shaping our world today. Through narrative comics and collaborative projects, my work seeks to visually bear witness to our times — making complex realities more accessible, personal, and powerful.

When in 2013 Gezi Park uprising happened in Turkey I found solace in my helplessness in creating Gezi Park. To witness happenings I’m emotionally tied to but actively and physically am not part of.

This approach—making international events visually understandable for a global audience—led to the creation of more short stories and eventually to a collaboration with Front Line Defenders, an organization committed to protecting Human Rights Defenders. In 2019, I traveled to Manipur in Northeast India to visually document a story on their behalf. The Caravan Magazine picked up Not Money-pur But Manipur - A graphic account of resilience and defiance in the face of conflict .

In June 2020, I became the Creative Director of Cypher, which I co-founded with Adam Shapiro, the former Head of Communication at Front Line Defenders. Since its launch, we have published monthly short comics—each between 8 and 12 pages—depicting the lives and struggles of Human Rights Defenders around the world.

I continue to create comic reportage and cartoons for organizations such as The Council of Europe, the Human Resource Development Foundation IKGV in Turkey (which focuses on human trafficking and child labor), and the EU-funded Push*Back*Lash project on gender equality and hate speech.

I'm available for commissions, talks, and collaborations focused on socially engaged storytelling and projects with a strong narrative or documentary focus.