Women’s Coalitions beyond the Laicism–Islamism Divide in Turkey: Towards an Inclusive Struggle for Gender Equality?

In the 2010s in Turkey, the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) authoritarian-populist turn accompanied the institutionalization of political Islam. As laicism was discredited and labeled as an imposed-from-above principle of Western/Kemalist modernity, the notion of equality ceased to inform the state’s gender policies. In response to AKP’s attempts to redefine gender relations through the notions of complementarity and fıtrat (purpose of creation), women across the political spectrum have mobilized for an understanding of gender equality that transcends the laicism–Islamism divide yet maintains secularity as its constitutive principle. Analyzing three recent attempts of women’s coalition-building, this article shows that, first, gender equality activists in the 2010s are renegotiating the border between secularity and piety towards more inclusive understandings of gender equality; and second, that struggles against AKP’s gender politics are fragmented due to different configurations of gender equality and secularity that reflect class and ethnic antagonisms in Turkish society. The article thereby argues for the need to move beyond binary approaches to secularism and religion that have so far dominated the scholarly analysis of women’s activism in both Turkey and the Nordic context

Feminist and LGBTI+ Activism across Russia, Scandinavia and Turkey

What do struggles for women’s and LGBTI+ rights in Russia, Turkey and the Scandinavian countries have in common? And what can actors who struggle for rights and justice in these contexts learn from each other? Based on a multisited ethnography of feminist and LGBTI+ activisms across Russia, Turkey and the Scandinavian countries, this Open Access book explores transnational struggles on various levels, from the micro-scale of the everyday to large-scale, spectacular events. Drawing on ethnographic insights and encounters from various sites, this book conceptualizes resistance as situated in the grey zone between barely perceptible, even hidden or covert, forms of mundane activist practices and highly visible street protests, gathering large crowds. Taking the reader beyond the dichotomies of visible/invisible and public/private, this book advances new understandings of resistance, solidarity, and activism in transnationalizing feminist and queer struggles, illustrated by rich ethnographic case studies from Russia, Scandinavia and Turkey

Feminist and LGBTI+ Activism across Russia, Scandinavia and Turkey

What do struggles for women’s and LGBTI+ rights in Russia, Turkey and the Scandinavian countries have in common? And what can actors who struggle for rights and justice in these contexts learn from each other? Based on a multisited ethnography of feminist and LGBTI+ activisms across Russia, Turkey and the Scandinavian countries, this Open Access book explores transnational struggles on various levels, from the micro-scale of the everyday to large-scale, spectacular events. Drawing on ethnographic insights and encounters from various sites, this book conceptualizes resistance as situated in the grey zone between barely perceptible, even hidden or covert, forms of mundane activist practices and highly visible street protests, gathering large crowds. Taking the reader beyond the dichotomies of visible/invisible and public/private, this book advances new understandings of resistance, solidarity, and activism in transnationalizing feminist and queer struggles, illustrated by rich ethnographic case studies from Russia, Scandinavia and Turkey

“If women stop, the world stops”: Forging transnational solidarities with the International Women’s Strike

Having roots in women’s struggles in different world regions, the International Women’s Strike (IWS) has, since 2017, generated a global wave of feminist mobilization against attacks on gender equality and sexual rights, neoliberalism’s multiple crises, and authoritarian, fundamentalist, and neo-nationalist politics. This article discusses the IWS from the perspective of transnational solidarities, with a focus on its manifestation in Turkey. First, differentiating between supra-political and left-leaning currents in transnational feminist politics, I outline the guiding principles of the IWS campaign as an acknowledgment of the systemic dynamics of gender oppression, a broad definition of women’s labor, and an intersectional understanding of solidarity. Second, drawing on field-based and digital ethnography, participatory action research, and interviews with activists from the coalition Women Are Strong Together, I discuss how the IWS principles overlapped with political dynamics and conflicts of interest between different women’s groups, hindering the possibility of a women’s strike in Turkey. The article demonstrates the tensions and transformations occurring at the intersection of the supra- and sub-national levels in feminist politics and contributes to the understanding of how different currents in transnational feminism dovetail with different imaginations and practices of solidarity.Published versio

Revisiting feminist historiography on women's activism in Turkey: beyond the grand narrative of waves

Recent contributions in feminist historiography challenge the reading of women's movements through the waves metaphor and destabilise rigid periodisations. These contributions have triggered debates about the way feminism and women's activism are analysed in the West, but their implications for feminist historiography in non-Western contexts have yet to be discussed. New studies, including our own, on Kemalist and socialist women's activisms suggest that the agendas affiliated with the post-1980 ‘second wave’ of feminism in Turkey had been raised prior to the 1980s. These findings call for critical engagement with the long-established idea that there have been two waves of women's movement in Turkey with a period of ‘barren years’ in between. In this article we explore the formation and scholarly implications of the waves analysis as a grand narrative in feminist historiography on women's activism in Turkey. We argue that the literature on feminism and women's activism must be rewritten, by not only incorporating the previously omitted histories of women's activism but also challenging the salient assumption that women's organising must be independent and position itself in opposition to the state to qualify as feminist.Published versio

Collective resilience and resistance in hybrid times: gender struggles in Germany, Turkey and Sweden

In activist circles, the concept of resilience seems to have captured the spotlight once enjoyed by resistance. Instead of treating resilience as antithetical to resistance, and a discursive neoliberal vehicle that seeks individual solutions to collective problems, this article demonstrates its relationality to resistance in the context of online/offline struggles of feminist and LGBTI + activists challenged by mobilizations against gender and sexual rights. Reflecting on the discussions and outputs of a series of digital workshops involving activists from Germany, Turkey and Sweden, the article investigates from a transnational perspective the meanings and aspects of collective resilience in the anti-gender context, and what resilience entails in the increasing online/offline hybridity of activism. Three themes emerge from this investigation: the connectedness of resistance and resilience across scale and context, the pronouncing of care and support networks as activist resources, and the emergence of the need and efforts to develop new alliances and solidarity structures in the face of the dual challenges of anti-gender mobilizations and neoliberalism. Resistance and resilience are intertwined in gender struggles taking place in the anti-gender context, in that the cultivation of resilience through care networks, the mobilization of positive affect, and the formation of dynamic and flexible solidarities enable and help sustain resistances in the online/offline interface. While online/offline hybridity offers opportunities to develop and sustain individual/collective resources, the article finds, attention should be paid to the processes of exclusion of underprivileged women and queer people in hybrid times

Collective resilience and resistance in hybrid times: Gender struggles in Germany, Turkey and Sweden

In activist circles, the concept of resilience seems to have captured the spotlight once enjoyed by resistance. Instead of treating resilience as antithetical to resistance, and a discursive neoliberal vehicle that seeks individual solutions to collective problems, this article demonstrates its relationality to resistance in the context of online/offline struggles of feminist and LGBTI + activists challenged by mobilizations against gender and sexual rights. Reflecting on the discussions and outputs of a series of digital workshops involving activists from Germany, Turkey and Sweden, the article investigates from a transnational perspective the meanings and aspects of collective resilience in the anti-gender context, and what resilience entails in the increasing online/offline hybridity of activism. Three themes emerge from this investigation: the connectedness of resistance and resilience across scale and context, the pronouncing of care and support networks as activist resources, and the emergence of the need and efforts to develop new alliances and solidarity structures in the face of the dual challenges of anti-gender mobilizations and neoliberalism. Resistance and resilience are intertwined in gender struggles taking place in the anti-gender context, in that the cultivation of resilience through care networks, the mobilization of positive affect, and the formation of dynamic and flexible solidarities enable and help sustain resistances in the online/offline interface. While online/offline hybridity offers opportunities to develop and sustain individual/collective resources, the article finds, attention should be paid to the processes of exclusion of underprivileged women and queer people in hybrid times

Unsettling the political: Conceptualizing the political in feminist and LGBTI+ activism across Russia, the Scandinavian countries, and Turkey

This article aims to expand the ongoing theoretical debate on the broadened and context-specific notion of politics by offering an empirically nuanced conceptualization of the political based on the study of feminist and lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and intersex (LGBTI+) activism in Russia, Turkey, and the Scandinavian countries. We use a multi-scalar transnational approach to foreground connectivities across regions to challenge nation-bound and state-centric perspectives on politics and reveal the various formulations beyond the formal/informal divide. Case studies from feminist and LGBTI+ activists and minority organizations demonstrate context-specific ways of inhabiting or distancing from politics. Drawing on interdisciplinary feminist scholarship and a Gramscian approach to civil society, we challenge the narrow articulation of politics either as antagonism or contestation. In doing so, we highlight the political expressions that do not neatly fit into the expected forms of politics, yet are motivated by a commitment to shaping new ways of living together.Published versio

Süt sığırlarında mortellaro hastalığının patomorfolojik bulguları

Mortellaro disease is an infection caused by mostly spirochete bacteria in dairy cows, sheep, and goats. The aim of the present study was to define to Mortellaro disease pathomorphologically and immunohistochemically and investigate whether cell-cell adhesion connections are lost in cell proliferation. Tissue samples were collected from underfoots of Holstein (n: 6) and Swiss Brown (n: 15) dairy cattle. The sections were stained with hematoxylin-eosin (H&E) and Warthin-Starry (WS) for isolation of spirochetes histopathologically and with P-catenin and PCNA primary antibodies immunohistochemically. Histopathologically, number of the cells in the stratum spinosum layer increased excessively, and it gave finger-like extensions to the dermis. Black stained spirochetes were detected among enlarged keratinocytes and inflammatory cells in WS staining. beta-catenin was strongly positive in the cell membranes of epithelial cells in all slides. PCNA also gave positive reaction moderately (n: 18) and strongly (n: 3) in nuclei of epithelial cells. It was observed that P-catenin cell-cell adhesion connections did not impair in the disease, so this is thought to positively affect the prognosis of the disease. The high expression of PCNA showed that the mitotic activity was high and explained the formation of wart-like. As a result, while the disease does not have a poor prognosis, the disease has a negative economic impact, and the economical results of this disease might be much greater than the treatment costs. It is still seen in our country and causes in loss of yield for the economy of country