Political Resistance in Turkey: How Resistance Is Experienced and How It Has Changed Over the Last Decade

Abstract

This chapter focuses on resistance practices in Turkey and how these practices have adapted and changed in response to repressive tactics from the Turkish government over the last ten years. Turkey is now classified as a competitive authoritarian regime, and has become less and less democratic as its authoritarianism has risen. In the past ten years, collective action in the context of this authoritarianism has also changed forms. We examine three cases from the last decade to describe this change: (1) the Gezi Park protests, (2) online campaigns around elections, and (3) the Academics for Peace petition and its aftermath. We discuss how repression leads to more varied, creative forms of resistance and how these may continue despite further punitive measures.