I’m very pleased that our article is now online at @bjpols.bsky.social! This was an ambitious project that involved data collection across more than 30 countries. Our findings offer insights into the vulnerabilities of popular democratic support in the face of electoral authoritarianism.

My wish for 2026 is that politicians and political analysts realize that public opinion is endogenous to elite behavior, that polling single issues tells us nothing about electorally successful strategies, that politics means shaping public opinion and that popularism is the death of progressivism.

📢 Happening tomorrow! Join our online workshop(13:00 UK time) for “Autocratization in an Age of Digitalization” 🗣️ Huseyin Emre Ceyhun (Princeton University) 💬 Discussants: Dr. Melis Laebens (CEU) & Dr. Rachael McLellan (Glasgow) 🔗 Register: city-ac-uk.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

📅 Oct 28, 3:00 PM (UK) Making the Invisible Visible @philipmai.com (@socialmedialab.ca) introduces PoliDashboard, a real-time tracker for political ads on Meta platforms. 🔍 Transparency in targeted political ads during elections.

🎓 Join us for our Autumn 2025 Webinar Series: “Using Social Media as a Research Tool”, co-organised with @aykutozturk.bsky.social! We explore how social media data can help study democracy, political communication & public engagement. 🧵👇

We invite submissions for the Autumn 2025 Turkish Politics Online Workshops co-convened by @aykutozturk.bsky.social @digdemsoyaltin.bsky.social The series provides an opportunity for feedback on working papers with the aim of supporting junior scholars See 👇 psaturkishpolitics.uk/2025/09/01/c...

Reports tonight that, following unprecedented intl pressure, Israel is going to facilitate a dramatic increase in aid, water supply, and aid-drop food by Israeli airforce (that has not happened before). For many in Gaza on the brink of death, this may prove too little too late.

Do sanction threats work? We find that threats—even if credibly backed—do not increase support for concessions in the target public (Turkiye case). Plus, positive inducements provoke backlash in some groups, highlighting coercive diplomacy’s limits Check out our research note: shrturl.app/3l4wWJ

Account to follow: There aren't many really active voices writing about #Turkey on this site. @cplaisant.bsky.social has been wonderfully engaged, sharing articles in multiple languages, and providing Eng translations of important Turkish texts, along with his own analysis. Well worth a follow

Aralarında gazetecilerin ve iktidara muhalif gençlerin de yer aldığı adli kontrol ile takip edilen kişi sayısı, 1 Temmuz itibarıyla 119 bin 413’e ulaştı.

This would mean a figure roughly equivalent to the military and civilian casualties in WWI.

DPIR’s 25th anniversary: Read our 25 in 25 Collection - celebrating staff, students, alumni, and the impact of our world-leading research. Meet @ktertytchnaya.bsky.social‬ - Associate Professor in Comparative Politics: www.politics.ox.ac.u...

Are you using online surveys in your research? Recruiting participants through paid ads? Then @anjaneundorf.bsky.social and I have an article you’ll want to read: academic.oup.com/poq/advance-...

From April 2025 - Choosing Democracy Over Party? How Civic Education Can Mitigate the Anti-Democratic Effects of Partisan Polarization - cup.org/4iooX3d - Melek Hilal Eroglu, Steven E. Finkel, @anjaneundorf.bsky.social, @aykutozturk.bsky.social & Ericka G. Rascón Ramírez #OpenAccess

Discuss.

I am excited to welcome two brilliant, fully-funded PhD researchers to @uofglasgow.bsky.social this autumn to work on different aspects of migration politics @uofglasgow.bsky.social. Supporting early-career scholars is one of the best parts of academic life, I am thrilled to share more below! 🧵

Hundreds of former Afghan commandos & their families were refused relocation by a UK Special Forces officer with possible links to a war crimes enquiry where they could’ve been witnesses. At least five were later murdered by the Taliban. The MoD then lied about this to Parliament & the courts.

US weapons still at work in Gaza. The refusal of this administration (like the previous one) to enforce the LOAC-based legal restrictions on US arms transfers to Israel is also a rule of law issue. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...

On Tuesday: Join us for a webinar session on Communalytic.org, a no-code computational social science research tool for studying online communities and public discourse on social media! The registration link: uofglasgow.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

🧵 1/ How do local politics shape where refugees want to live in the host states? In our new study (w/ Sefa Seçen & Aykut Öztürk), we examine the internal destination preferences of Syrian refugees in Turkey and Germany. The results are important.👇

🚨 Democracy under threat? 🚨 Join Transparency International UK's @danieljbruce.bsky.social and @muteswann.bsky.social on June 4 in Edinburgh as @uniofaberdeen.bsky.social brings together experts to tackle corruption and strengthen governance in Scotland. www.transparency.org.uk/events/corru...

Thrilled to announce my new article, "Symbolic Leverage: Nominating (Non)Veiled Women as an Electoral Competition Strategy in Polarized Turkey," is now published in @politicsgenderj.bsky.social and available as First View (Open Access)! 🇹🇷♀️🗳️ (Thread 👇) #SymbolicLeverage #TurkishPolitics

🛎️New WP with @morganlcj.bsky.social @timallinger.bsky.social and @danbischof.bsky.social Against the surge of conjoints and other hypothetical experiments in relation to democratic backsliding, we study the consequences of using hypotheticals versus real-world scenarios. osf.io/preprints/os...

🌐💻@aykutozturk.bsky.social and I are pleased to announce our next three webinars in our series "Social media as a research tool", starting on Tue, 20 May. Find out more and register here: www.gla.ac.uk/research/az/...

🚨 We're hiring! Join us at @LMU_Muenchen for the DFG-funded project "Democratic Persuasion: How to Make the Case for Democracy." Interested in making scholarly & societal impact? We’re looking for: 🔹 1 Postdoc (100%) 🔹 1 PhD researcher (70%) Starting: Oct 2025 | Apply by: July 8 More info ⬇️ (1/7)

🚨 Trump’s efforts to deport migrants w/o legal status to Libya are beyond disgusting. I teach North African Politics, followed Libya for years & interviewed scores of migrants in Tunisia who went through its hell. There is an active slave trade there. Journalists cannot enter. An urgent thread: 🧵

After X’s repressive actions, hundreds of thousands in Turkey joined Bluesky, seeking a freer space. Reports of government censorship here are deeply troubling. Don’t squander this trust. This is a critical moment for principled leadership—not silent compromise. @jay.bsky.team

Democracy dies in an immigration court in a GEO detention center in Jena, Louisiana. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Bağımsız medya erişim engelleriyle, sansür uygulamalarıyla ve platformların keyfî kararlarıyla boğuşurken; Bluesky gibi merkeziyetsiz ve şeffaf yapılar giderek daha güçlü bir alternatif haline geliyor.

During Gezi, "the protesters dominated social networks and the police weren't able to identify them," @orhan-sener.bsky.social said. "But today, when you join a demonstration in Turkey, your face is recognized by a camera and the system cross-references it with your profile on social networks."

Dear Muse, The organizer of your Istanbul concert, DBL Entertainment, is on the boycott list for its affiliations with the oppressive government, and its owner has insulted pro-democracy protesters. Due to the boycott, we won’t attend and urge you to stand for democracy.

Literally sending DHS after people for speech

It is remarkable (compared to other backsliding regimes) how brazen and transparent Trump is in targeting his "enemies." In Turkey, it would take months and an enterprising journalist to uncover that a university had its funds cut off, a firm blacklisted, contracts rescinded, or thousands fired.

It was an honor to talk to @united24media.com about Putin's goals and why any future peace deal without solid guarantees could lead to even greater risks for Ukraine. Recorded 10 days ago. Some things here the White House should but doesn't know. www.youtube.com/live/N1H_75I...

Politicians should never interfere with the day to day operations of colleges and universities. No matter what political party, it’s an assault on the independence of the institution and on academic freedom. nypost.com/2025/02/25/u...

This is the very definition of a rogue, self-harming, unprovoked attack. Instead of taking the W of Assad's ouster & working to get relations with Syria's new leadership- which has studiously sought to avoid conflict- off to a mutually beneficial start, Israel bombs Damascus.

Join us for our next webinar on 18 February (15h, GMT) on "Recruiting Research Participants across the World: a 30-country study" that @aykutozturk.bsky.social and I will deliver ourselves. Registration: uofglasgow.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Less than two weeks left to apply to the #ISPPAcademy in Prague! See link for more information: ispp.org/resources/ac...

🚨🚨Job opportunity! @bilgeyabanci.bsky.social is looking for a postdoc for her project "Re-shaping Attitudes about Refugees and Gender Minorities in Spain and Portugal" at the University of Deusto. The application deadline is 28 March 2025. For details: deusto.talentclue.com/en/node/1136...

As the convenors we are happy to share the Spring program for the PSA Turkish Politics Online Workshops (TPOWs) @aykutozturk.bsky.social @psaturkish.bsky.social See the link for registration psaturkishpolitics.uk

"Social Media as a Research Tool: The Winter 2025 Webinar series" starts next Tuesday. Join us to learn about the latest developments in data collection through social media. For more info and registration links: gla.ac.uk/research/az/... Hosted by @anjaneundorf.bsky.social and me

“Laila was the joy of the house.” The funeral of two-year-old Palestinian Laila al-Khatib, who was killed by an Israeli sniper while eating at home, was held in Jenin, occupied West Bank. 🔴 LIVE updates: http://aje.io/ab8bxo

How do autocrats stay in power? Our new research dives into the strategies of political control—repression, co-optation, and indoctrination—used across 229 autocracies from 1946 to 2010. What we found will change the way you think about authoritarian resilience. 🧵👇

@aykutozturk.bsky.social and I are pleased to announce our next round of webinars on "Using Social Media as a Research Tool". The Meta team is kicking off the series on 4th Feb (15h, GMT) introducing their Content Library. Find out more and register here: www.gla.ac.uk/research/az/...