Undermining Resistance : State Repression in the Gezi Park Protests

Abstract: This paper investigates how changes in states’ repression tactics impact the dynamics of civil protests. Research on the repression-dissident nexus has commonly studied repression as one concept, lacking disaggregation into its different types. In an empirical study of the Gezi Park protest campaign, erupting in late May 2013 in Istanbul, Turkey, this paper focuses on the impact of indiscriminate versus selective repression. Specifically, it examines if the change from an indiscriminate to a more selective state repression strategy had a de-escalatory effect on the protest activity in the Gezi campaign. The study finds support for the hypothesis that this was the case. Further, it concludes that disaggregation of the repression concept is key for capturing the dynamic character of the repression-dissident relationship.