Brazilian political cartoonist Carlos Latuff is popular with my 12-year-old son who grew up seeing Latuff’s cartoons on my computer and who refers to him as his "Middle Eastern politics teacher." Several of my college students with Latin American or Middle Eastern roots regularly follow Latuff’s work. His passion for Palestine, his work titled “Tales of Iraq War” and his respect for religious values have made him rather popular among Turkish Islamists over the last decade. Latuff is known for his courageous and unapologetic stand with oppressed groups all over the world. No human concern is too distant and irrelevant for him.

He is a hero to not only the left wing but also the Islamists in Turkey. For this reason in January 2015 pro-government daily Sabah praised Latuff by calling him “a world-renowned Brazilian cartoonist.” Yet on Dec. 8, the Official Gazette reported that Latuff's website was banned and could no longer be accessed in Turkey.

The people of Tunisia, Egypt and Yemen as well as those in other Middle Eastern countries followed the developments of the Arab Spring through Latuff's cartoons. They found hope and inspiration in his drawings. People in Turkey often question if he really is not Turkish, because according to many, he understands the Turks and the situation in Turkey better than their own government. Latuff has created drawings about various turning points in Turkish politics — many of which members of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) would like to ignore and forget.

His work includes drawings of the bombings in Uludere, a border town where 35 Kurdish villagers have become collateral damage; of Recep Tayyip Erdogan as a diminutive figure dangling from his collar in the hands of young Berkin Elvan, who was a victim of police brutality in Istanbul during the Gezi Park protests; and of Erdogan as Gollum after Erdogan sued a doctor for a Gollum meme. Of the latter drawing, Latuff said that if he was residing in Turkey, he would be most likely in jail by now.