Coping with repression: How oppositional CSOs build resilience under Turkey's competitive authoritarianism

This study aims to reveal the strategies employed by oppositional civil society organizations (CSOs) in Turkey to deal with government-imposed repressive elements. Turkey has been undergoing a process of autocratization for about fifteen years, and this process has reached the point where the regime is classified as "competitive authoritarian". In such a regime, where critical voices in civil society are tried to be controlled as much as possible, the field of action of many oppositional CSOs has been limited or completely destroyed. However, there are still CSOs that can survive despite all the pressures, continue their work, defend liberal democratic values, and develop various strategies to achieve this all. To reveal these strategies, a qualitative field research was conducted based on semi-structured in-depth interviews with 16 CSO representatives from eight different fields. As a result of the research, seven focus areas were determined to help building institutional resilience against the pressures that CSOs are exposed to under Turkey's competitive authoritarian regime. These can be listed as building and managing organizational reputation, establishing national and international alliances, taking part in non-violent contentious actions, pursuing continuous resistance with strategic adaptations, building legal competencies in the organization, ensuring financial sustainability, and effective social media management.