Women's Rights Organizations' Interface with the State in Turkey in the 2000s

From the early 2000s to the establishment of the third AKP government in 2011, one can observe a compromise between the state and women’s rights organizations characterized by a conflictual yet cooperative relationship. However, after 2011, a turning point for the prevalence of an authoritarian tendency on the part of the government, particularly unveiling their conservative attitude regarding gender equality, the promising political atmosphere has tremendously changed. In the third AKP rule, questions have been raised about their will to improve women’s social, political and economic status in Turkey with the concern that the EU impetus and efforts for democratization remained facade. This concern has become more explicit/risen to the surface in women’s rights organizations' interface with the state in the last three years. At this juncture, the aim of this study is to find out the patterns of interface between women’s rights organizations and the state with a particular focus on KA-DER (The Association for the Support and Training of Women Candidates in Politics) and MOR ÇATI (Purple Roof Women’s Shelter Foundation) as the exemplary cases which we consider as critical for the promotion of women’s rights in Turkey.