For those of you at #APSA2025, come check out our panel today at 4 PM. Lots of papers about troop deployments, foreign military training, and other foreign policy tools! @ilkerkalin.bsky.social

See my latest blog post for @ecprtheloop.bsky.social

Based on fieldwork and interviews with activists, I argue that the isolation of LGBTQ+ activists not only undermines solidarity, but also weakens democracy and plays into the hands of repression.

Read the full post here:

🏳️‍🌈 In Turkey, gender and sexual minorities are increasingly targeted by the state.
🪧 But minorities are also isolated by opposition groups that purport to champion democratic values.
⛓️ @ilkerkalin.bsky.social argues this weakens democracy, and reinforces repression
👇 bit.ly/44RNXeE

In the United States and beyond, democratic backsliding threatens to reverse recent gains in LGBTQ rights, writes @arimshaw.bsky.social‬. To protect marginalized groups, policymakers and activists must “build up institutional safeguards that can withstand this wave of illiberal pressure.”

Our latest issue is now available! Check it out👇

www.allazimuth.com/issues/

My colleague, Bogdan Ianosev, is conducting a non-commercial psychology study exploring how musical preferences relate to personality, morality, and worldviews.

You can take the survey by using the QR code or this link:

gsbscognition.limequery.com/412177?lang=en

Please participate & share!

ETC skriver om Institutet för Turkietstudier vid Stockholms universitets gästforskare @ilkerkalin.bsky.social:s forskning. Ilker visar att inte nog med att ickevålds-metoder är två gånger så effektiva som våldsamt motstånd, de når också resultat mycket snabbare.
www.etc.se/utrikes/ny-s...

Icke-våldsamma motståndsrörelser är betydligt mer framgångsrika än våldsamma, enligt en ny internationell studie från Stockholms universitet.

I had an interview wt @etc.se about our new study on the duration of nonviolent vs violent resistance, conducted together wt @firuzesezgin.bsky.social & others.

I talk about what factors help accelerate success & what this might mean for ongoing protest movements today.
www.etc.se/utrikes/ny-s...

New policy brief from @golafs.bsky.social & me for SUITS:

Turkey may be at a turning point. With the PKK disbanded and constitutional reform back in play, the stakes—for both peace and democracy—are high.

We look at what’s changed since 2011, and what’s now at risk.

www.su.se/institute-fo...

CfP is out for the upcoming conference I co-organise with @bilgeyabanci.bsky.social & Sonia Alonso Sáenz de Oger in Bilbao this coming October.

Those working on radical right movements, conspiracy theories, and societal violence, send an abstract here 👇

agenda.deusto.es/en/conferenc...

In fact, @ilkerkalin.bsky.social, one of my colleagues, JUST published an article comparing the effectiveness of nonviolent & violent movements. It turns out that nonviolence "outperformed violent movements by a 2-to-1 success rate in obtaining objectives."+
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1...

When I argued the other day that nonviolent protests are not the most effective way to protest against democratic backsliding, some people got very angry. Contrary to what many of them argued, I wasn't making stuff up to defend the status quo. I study politics in an autocratic regime: Turkey.+

Here’s my piece from last week comparing Le Pen’s political ban and İmamoğlu’s case:
Both sides are using each other to justify their actions—Le Pen calls her conviction politically motivated, drawing parallels to Erdoğan’s tactics, while Turkish officials cite her case to argue that prosecuting ++

Our society needs other platforms for social networking, exchange and debate, such alternative networks and services have emerged (cf Fediverse). They can strengthen our democracy on the basis of open and recognised standards in decentralised structures.

savesocial.eu/en/

1 / Going into what’s expected to be a big weekend of protests around the US, my team at the Crowd Counting Consortium (@djpressman.bsky.social, Soha Hammam & Chris Shay) has issued our monthly data release. TLDR: protest in the US is growing at an impressive pace. A few key highlights:

Lately I've seen many references to the 3.5% rule. A few years ago I pulled together this Q&A on potential uses and misuses of this statistic. www.hks.harvard.edu/sites/defaul...

Elite defection is not a good sign for Ankara:

t24.com.tr/haber/akp-li...

When soft power is no longer enough to i) garner popular legitimacy, ii) manufacture consent, and iii) gain loyalty, iron fist is inevitable to remain in power.

LGBTİ+ dernekleri: 'Sen, ben, o, biz, siz, Hepimiz Hedefteyiz!'

LGBTİ+ dernekleri, aralarında İBB Başkanı Ekrem İmamoğlu’nun da bulunduğu gazeteci, siyasetçi ve sanatçıların gözaltına alınmasına tepki gösterdi.

Açıklamanın tamamı şöyle:

An *incomplete* crowdsourced list of cities with protests in Turkey today:
Adana
Ankara (multiple)
Antalya
Artvin
Bursa
Çorum
Denizli
Elazığ
Eskişehir
Hatay
İstanbul (multiple)
İzmir (multiple)
İzmit
Kırıkkale
Konya
Manisa
Muğla
Rize
Samsun
Şanlıurfa
Trabzon
Yozgat
Feel free to add to it below!

Depressing that we have to think like this now, but this is useful. One important takeaway: have a lawyer's number on you
www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2025/...

In Nations in Transit 2020, my then-colleague @zecsaky.bsky.social wrote about how leaders were dropping the democratic facade. This is what’s happened in Turkey now—the final dispensing with even nominal efforts to comply with democratic norms.

freedomhouse.org/report/natio...

@djpressman.bsky.social, Soha Hammam, and I draw on our research through the Crowd Counting Consortium to show that there is far more protest happening in the US than is commonly understood, and that the shift to economic noncooperation shows powerful potential for future collective action.