Nonviolence

Our activities on nonviolence involve subjects such as nonviolent campaigning and nonviolent action. We aim to ensure rights advocacy organizations and activists effectively use nonviolence. We work towards introducing rights advocacy organizations and activists to nonviolent tools and methods and increasing their nonviolent campaign planning skills. 

We prepared a Handbook of Nonviolent Campaigns for Social Change to provide a concise and easy-to-read overview of what constitutes a nonviolent campaign. In the handbook, we illustrate the difference between nonviolent campaigns and other campaigning methods we observe in various fields, talk about the role of an alternative perspective on power in nonviolent campaigns, and explain how we can use existing tools of campaign planning while planning a nonviolent campaign. You can visit our library to access our other sources either produced in or translated into Turkish. 

In 2023, we organized a nonviolent campaign training with 55 advocates to strengthen the nonviolence and nonviolent campaign planning muscles of rights advocacy organizations and activists. 

We also created a database for nonviolent actions in Turkey from 1950 to 2017 to raise the visibility of nonviolent actions. This database compiles actions undertaken by various organizations, each with unique organizational structures and different agendas, all addressing various aspects of our lives. So far, we have stored limited data on actions undertaken by environmental, anti-war, and women’s movements. Our work is not yet complete and will never be truly “complete” since we witness, hear about, or become aware of new actions each day. Therefore, we envision this database to be a living and evolving source. 

As part of our nonviolence activities, we continue to conduct research and prepare sources in the field of nonviolence to spread knowledge and organize workshops so that organizations and activists use nonviolence effectively.