Environment as a referent of counter-securitization: An avenue of transformation in authoritarian regimes? Case of 2021 wildfires in Turkey

As an increasing number of political and public actors acknowledge the urgency of environmental issues, they have assumed a significant role in securitization dynamics. Contributing to the existing scholarship on securitization dynamics in Turkey, this thesis analyses the use of the environment as a referent of counter-securitization by opposition groups during the 2021 wildfires in Turkey. Synthesizing three core studies by Robinson, Ezeokafor, and Stritzel, the thesis conceptualizes securitization as a process evolving out of the interactive tension between securitization and counter-securitization practices of competing political actors. This conceptualization also highlights the importance of political configurations - distribution of authority and social capital among actors in the security field- and ideational dependence - Historically specific dispositions and institutional memories embedded within security discourses- in shaping securitization outcomes. An original analytical review of the literature on securitization in Turkey shows that scholarship has identified different securitizing actors, existential threats, and referent objects to be dominant in the 2000-2010, 2010-2015, and post-2015 periods. This analysis is complemented by an analysis of the shifts in political configurations in these same periods. The thesis analyses the securitization and counter-securitization attempts of the government and opposition actors during the 2021 wildfires in Turkey. It finds that the environment can serve as an effective referent for counter-securitization attempts of opposition groups even in authoritarian contexts.