After a long period of stagnation, the women’s movement in Turkey entered a new phase through the mobilizations for abortion rights, the Gezi Resistance, the Özgecan Aslan uprising, and the March 6–8 protests in 2016. The year 2017 became a year in which women raised their voices against increasing femicides and the spiral of violence surrounding every aspect of life, declaring that they would not remain silent and strengthening both solidarity and struggle. The year 2018 was filled with the voices of women who refused to submit to child abuse, said no to one-man rule, rejected obedience, and sought freedom. In 2019, women filled the streets and squares with the slogan “We Will Not Pay the Price of the Economic Crisis,” standing against the male-dominated system that sought to trap women in violence, poverty, and unemployment amid a spiral of crises. The Las Tesis actions, which resonated across the world, marked the beginning of a new process that brought women’s struggle onto an international ground. With the courage and hope created by women’s rebellion in the streets, local revolts were organized and collective strength was built.

Mor Dayanışma’s work began with women from Antakya who raised the banner of rebellion during the 2013 mobilizations for abortion rights and the Gezi Resistance. As the work in Antakya resonated and created new connections, women in Adana also became part of this organizing process. Mor Dayanışma became the voice and expression of women in southern Turkey. 

In February 2014, women from Antakya founded the Mor Dayanışma Association in Antakya. Our association began its work not as an organization waiting for women to come to its center, but as one that went into the neighborhoods.In the neighborhoods, we organized panels on women’s health, communication workshops, film screenings, and women’s gatherings, as well as focus group meetings titled “The Problems Are Clear, the Solution Lies in Solidarity” and talks titled “How Can We Stop Violence in the Neighborhoods?”Mor Dayanışma Women’s Association also participated in the “Gender through Games” event held within the scope of Sabancı University’s Purple Certificate Program; the “Women’s Human Rights Training Program Training of Trainers” prepared by Women for Women’s Human Rights, New Ways; the project “Against Violence against Refugee Women: Changing the Language and Mindsets of the Media” prepared by the Women’s Studies Association in Ankara; the “Women in Local Governments Project” prepared by Yeşilpınar Social Assistance Association; and the Women’s Shelters Assembly.

The fire of rebellion lit in Antakya and Adana quickly spread across the country. Women from Antakya, Adana, Mersin, İzmir, İstanbul, and Antalya decided to turn women’s anger into an organized struggle and to build a collective consciousness and movement for women’s liberation.When women came together on September 23, 24, and 25, 2016, they gathered around the call: “We set out from homes, kitchens, workshops, and factories.” Empowered by this gathering, they launched the “painting life purple” campaign across Turkey. This marked the beginning of the publication of Mor Dayanışma women’s newspaper. 

Organizing at the neighborhood level, Mor Dayanışma established local women’s assemblies wherever it could reach. Through workshops on literacy, erbane, yoga, women’s choir, self-defense, literature, and more, as well as seminars on gender, women’s health and rights, and women’s labor, it created spaces for women to express themselves. It enabled women from different backgrounds to come together around the common problems they face as women.

Later, with the 2nd Women’s Camp held on August 25–27, 2017, and the 1st Turkey Women’s Conference held on December 23–24, 2017, Mor Dayanışma demonstrated a strong women’s collective will across the country.At our women’s conferences, held every two years, we discuss the motions and organizing strategies that shape the feminist politics we will pursue in the coming period. Through nominations from provincial assemblies to the Turkish Assembly and the Central Coordination, we share and transfer our organizational mechanisms to new comrades by means of democratic methods and semi-direct representation.

The 2nd Turkey Women’s Conference was held on February 8–9, 2019, under the slogan “Struggle Against All Odds, Freedom Against All Odds”. With the strength and hope created by broad participation and solidarity from both Turkey and abroad, we set out with our call: “Organize 2020, organize with Mor Dayanışma.”

The 3rd Turkey Women’s Conference was held on June 11–12, 2021, under the slogan “Now Is the Time to Take One More Step for an Equal, Free World Without Exploitation!”.

In 2020, with the initiative of regional assemblies, Mor Dayanışma began organizing in more provinces. It held its 4th Turkey Women’s Conferences in three different regions, Marmara, the Aegean, and the South, with the participation of hundreds of women, under the slogan “Not Alone, Strong Together!”.

Looking at the women’s camps held every summer;

Mor Dayanışma held its 3rd Women’s Camp on August 3–5, 2018, under the slogan “Freedom Is Right Beside Us! In Our Hands! Wherever Women Are, There It Is!”, and its 4th Women’s Camp on August 23–25, 2019, under the slogan “Women Exist, Women Are Everywhere!”, with the participation of hundreds of women from many different provinces.

After the regional assemblies initiative in 2020, Mor Dayanışma held its 5th Women’s Camp in two different regions with the participation of hundreds of women. The Southern Region Women’s Camp was held on August 28–29, and the Aegean Region Women’s Camp on September 4–5, under the slogan “Even If the World Turns Upside Down, We Do Not Give Up on Each Other, Our Struggle, Our Lives, or Our Joy”.

In 2021, Mor Dayanışma held its 6th Women’s Camp under the slogan “We Are Not Carried by the Current, but by the Wave of Hope!” in the Southern Region on September 3–4 and in the Aegean Region on September 10–11.

Since 2022, Mor Dayanışma has also begun organizing women’s camps in the Marmara Region. It held its 7th Women’s Camp under the slogan “Against the Darkness, Hope Lies with Women”.

In 2023, Mor Dayanışma held its 8th Women’s Camp under the slogan “I Have Raised the Banner of Rebellion, Waving Freely Above Me!”. The Marmara Region camp was held on August 9–11, the Aegean Region camp on August 17–18, and the Southern Region camp on August 23–25.

Throughout the summer of 2023, we held panels titled “An Age of Disasters? A Spiral of Crises? What Should Women Do? Where Is the Way Out?” Based on the needs that emerged from these panels, as well as from the discussions we carried out in our traditional summer women’s camps held in three regions over the past year and in our winter women’s camp, we decided to organize an international symposium. On January 14, 2024, Mor Dayanışma held the symposium titled “Experiences of International Organized Feminist Struggle amid the Crisis of Patriarchal Capitalism” at İstanbul Müze Gazhane, with the participation of nearly five hundred women and LGBTQ+ people.

With the participation of feminists from Iran, Lebanon, France, Poland, and Italy, we discussed the current state of women’s movements and feminist movements around the world, as well as their urgent needs. Presentations were delivered by Zuzanna Dorota Karcz from Poland, a member of New Way of Activism; Diana Moukalled from Lebanon, a feminist activist and journalist at Daraj; ARYA MERONİ from France, a member of Assemblée féministe Montreuil and Coordination Féministe; Lucia Amorossi and Irene Cau from Italy, members of Potere al Popolo and Ni Una Menos; and Foorogh Sheykholeslami from Iran, founder and member of Stop Honour Killings.

In the second session, participants from the women’s movement in Turkey delivered their presentations. Our comrades from Mor Dayanışma, Campus Witches, the Purple List of the Genel-İş Union, Women Together Are Strong, and the DEM Women’s Assembly took the floor. Perihan Koca, one of the founders of Mor Dayanışma, spokesperson of the Social Freedom Party and DEM Party MP, and musician Gaye Su Akyol also sent their greetings to the symposium.

Mor Dayanışma also decided to expand its association spaces as places where women could meet, socialize, and organize. With the Mor Dayanışma Association opened in İstanbul, Beşiktaş on August 3, 2019, and the association opened in Kartal on January 4, 2020, it carried its local organizing work one step further. Today, of these two association spaces, the one in Kartal has been closed due to financial difficulties, while the association in Beşiktaş has moved to the Beyoğlu district. 

Diğer dernek binaları 23 Nisan 2022’de Adana’da, 17 Nisan 2022’de İzmir’de, 18 Temmuz 2023’te Mersin’de açıldı ve faaliyetlerine devam ediyorlar.

After the February 6 earthquakes centered in Maraş, our first association building, the Antakya Mor Dayanışma building, was severely damaged and unfortunately had to be demolished. Following the women’s tent activities we launched across Hatay, we opened our prefabricated association space in Samandağ on July 15, 2023, and our association space in Antakya/Serinyol on May 18, 2024. The documentary “ÇATI”, filmed by members of our İstanbul Culture and Arts Commission, is an important work on the women’s solidarity and struggle that grew out of the women’s tents.

Mor Dayanışma celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2024 and continues to contribute its labor to organized socialist feminist struggle, both in its association spaces and in the neighborhoods.