Oğuz Aral was a Turkish

Turkish people

Turkish people, also known as the "Turks" , are an ethnic group primarily living in Turkey and in the former lands of the Ottoman Empire where Turkish minorities had been established in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Romania...

 political cartoonist

Cartoonist

A cartoonist is a person who specializes in drawing cartoons. This work is usually humorous, mainly created for entertainment, political commentary or advertising...

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Biography

Born in Silivri

Silivri

Silivri is a city and a district in Istanbul Province along the Sea of Marmara in Turkey, outside of metropolitan Istanbul, containing many holiday and weekend homes for residents of the city. The largest city in the district is also named Silivri...

, Istanbul Province

Istanbul Province

Istanbul Province is a province located in north-west Turkey. It has an area of 5,196 km² and a population of 13,255,685. The population was 10,018,735 in 2000. It is surrounded by the provinces of Tekirdağ to the west, Kocaeli to the east, the Black Sea to the northern part and the Sea of...

, he founded the cartoon magazine Gırgır

Girgir

Gırgır was one of the best selling cartoon magazines in Europe in the 1970s with nearly a million copies a week. It was founded by Oguz Aral.So many caricaturist was trained here like Metin Üstündağ....

(Fun) with his brother Tekin Aral, and created such characters as "Avanak Avni" (Avni the Gullible), "Köstebek Hüsnü" (Hüsnü the Mole), "Utanmaz Adam" (the Shameless Man) and "Vites Mahmut" (Mahmut the Gearbox). GırGır was one of the best selling cartoon magazines in Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

 in the 1970s with nearly a million copies a week.

Called the "godfather" of Turkish cartoonists, Aral mentored scores of young artists, helping them publish their comics. Gırgır, known to be outstandingly critical of all social ills, was banned after the 1980 military coup, but Oğuz Aral's cartoons still ran in the newspaper Hürriyet

Hürriyet

-External links:* * ** * *...

until his death in Bodrum

Bodrum

Bodrum is a port city in Muğla Province, in the southwestern Aegean Region of Turkey. It is located on the southern coast of Bodrum Peninsula, at a point that checks the entry into the Gulf of Gökova. The site was called Halicarnassus of Caria in ancient times and was famous for housing the...

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Oğuz Aral was interred at the Zincirlikuyu Cemetery

Zincirlikuyu Cemetery

The Zincirlikuyu Cemetery is a modern burial ground at the European part of Istanbul, Turkey. It is administered by the Metropolitan Municipality. Many prominent figures from the world of politics, business, sports and arts rest here....

in Istanbul. He is survived by a son.