AKP or Justice and Development Party is a dominant political party in Turkey, self-identified as conservative-democratic and characterised by national conservative, right-wing populist, and neo-Ottoman ideologies. Founded in 2001 and led by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, it has maintained power since 2002, appealing mainly to Turkey's right-wing electorate, advocating for a pro-liberal market economy and Turkish membership in the European Union while increasingly displaying authoritarian tendencies.

Care infrastructure refers to collective systems (formal or informal) that sustain wellbeing and enable long-term activism.

Clowning the patriarchy – humorous online subversion of anti-gender rhetoric

Collective joy – shared emotional experience that builds solidarity and resilience in protest or community settings

Creative resistance – cultural and artistic practices used to counter oppressive politics.

Diversity-oriented children’s literacy events targeted by anti-gender activists as supposed threats.

Exile refers more specifically to forced or politically motivated displacement, when individuals must leave because their activism, identity, or ideas become criminalised or living as themselves becomes dangerous. Topic 1: How do ‘anti-gender’ politics contribute to displacement and shape experiences of border violence?

Grassroots refers to the basic or fundamental level of society, particularly in relation to local communities or collectively-led, autonomous organisations. The term is used to describe movements or efforts that originate from ordinary people rather than from authorities or institutions.

HazteOír (HO) is a far-right, ultracatholic, and ultraconservative organisation founded in February 2001 in Spain. Initially intended to conduct online campaigns focused on family and education from a conservative Catholic perspective, HO has evolved into a significant lobbying group. Founded by Ignacio Arsuaga, HazteOír aimed at mobilising public opinion through petitions and campaigns largely centered on family values and education.

Selective LGBTQ+ inclusion used to justify nationalist or anti-migrant politics.

Intergenerational solidarity – collaboration and mutual support across age groups within activism

French polemic term (‘Islamo-leftism’) used to accuse anti-racist academics and activists of Islamist sympathy, echoing earlier propaganda tropes.

Killjoy feminism is a concept developed by feminist scholar Sara Ahmed to describe what happens when feminists disrupt situations where harmful norms are being presented as normal, natural, or harmless.

A feminist killjoy is someone who refuses to stay silent in the face of sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, or other injustices – even if speaking up “spoils the mood.” Rather than trying to keep everyone comfortable, killjoy feminism insists on naming the problem.
This can make the feminist seem like the one “causing trouble,” when in fact the trouble is the injustice itself.

Knowledge infrastructures – the formal and informal systems through which communities preserve and transmit information, experience, and strategy

It is important to note that the Kurdish–Turkish conflict cannot be understood in isolation from Turkey’s longer history of authoritarian governance and repression of ethnic, religious, and political minorities. Policies of forced assimilation, denial of cultural rights, and state violence have affected a wide range of groups, including Armenians, Assyrians, Alevis, non-Muslims, leftists, and dissidents more broadly.

However, within contemporary political, social, and cultural life in Turkey, the Kurdish question has become the most structurally defining axis of conflict. Due to its scale, duration, geographic scope, and centrality to state security policies, the Kurdish issue has profoundly shaped Turkey’s legal framework, militarisation, governance practices, and limits on democratic participation. As such, while repression in Turkey is neither new nor exclusive to Kurds, the Kurdish question remains the most decisive and enduring site through which authoritarian power has been organised and contested.

The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) is a Kurdish militant political organisation and armed guerrilla group founded in 1978. It has primarily operated in the Kurdish-majority regions of southeastern Turkey, northern Iraq, and northeastern Syria. The PKK initially sought an independent Kurdish state but later shifted its political vision toward advocating autonomy and greater rights for Kurds within existing state borders.

This shift must be understood against a longer history of systemic repression of Kurdish communities across the region. Kurdish populations have faced decades of forced assimilation, large-scale displacement, bans on the Kurdish language and cultural expression, and repeated military campaigns. These policies have produced enduring forms of structural and political violence that continue to shape Kurdish mobilisation and resistance.

In the 2000s, the PKK reoriented its political project toward a model inspired by democratic confederalism, emphasising community-based, decentralised self-governance, ecological sustainability, and feminist principles. This framework has influenced forms of Kurdish self-organisation, particularly in parts of northern Syria and Iraq.

Despite establishing limited forms of autonomy in some areas, Kurdish communities continue to face ongoing struggles for recognition, rights, and political self-determination. Following the failed promise of a Kurdish state after World War I, Kurds have remained marginalised within the geopolitical orders of Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria, resulting in persistent conflict and repression.

In 2025, following the convening of its congress, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) formally announced its dissolution and declared an end to its armed struggle. As part of this process, the organisation symbolically destroyed its weapons, signalling a transition away from militarised resistance and toward engagement within the sphere of civilian and political struggle.

Living archive – an archive that sustains current political life (Ahmed)

Metaxas dictatorship often referred to as the 4th of August Regime, was an authoritarian rule in Greece headed by General Ioannis Metaxas from 1936 until his death in 1941. This regime was marked by the suspension of parliament, repression of political dissent, and a robust nationalist and anti-communist ideology, frequently likened to fascism.

Migration refers to the movement of people across nation-state borders, including labour migration, asylum, and relocation.

Peer-learning – shared educational practices where all participants contribute knowledge

Political joy – collective joy as a form of agency, resilience, and refusal of fear.

Queer futurity – Muñoz’s concept describing imaginative horizons beyond current constraints

French civic ideal of equality through secularism; often criticised for erasing racial and cultural difference.

The Istanbul Convention, formally known as the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence, is a landmark human rights treaty established on 11 May 2011 in Istanbul, Turkey. Its main objectives are to prevent violence against women, protect victims, and ensure accountability for perpetrators. Turkey was the first country to ratify the convention in 2012 but controversially withdrew from it in 2021.

Vulnerability, in feminist theory, is a shared condition of interdependence that can become a political resource.

Woke is an adjective from African-American English, referring to awareness of racial prejudice, that has been appropriated and popularised in the 2010s, evolving to encompass broader social inequalities and became associated with leftist activism. By 2019, it was used sarcastically by the political right, leading to terms like ‘woke-washing’ and ‘woke capitalism.’