Siyaset Bilimi ve Uluslararası İlişkiler Bölümü Koleksiyonu
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11779/1939
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Article A Discourse Analysis of Bilateral Water Agreements Between Türkiye and Iraq: Legal Instruments of Water Diplomacy in the Euphrates-Tigris River Basin(International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, 2026) Güleç, Cansu; Kibaroglu, AysegulThis study examines the discursive dynamics of bilateral water diplomacy between T & uuml;rkiye and Iraq through a detailed analysis of the legal agreements governing the Euphrates-Tigris (ET) River system. Rather than focusing on the implementation or efficacy of these agreements, the paper investigates how discourse shapes the roles, identities, and power hierarchies of the involved actors over time. Employing a discourse-analytical framework, the research explores how water agreements position actors, embed values, and narrate cooperation in evolving geopolitical contexts. The paper begins with a historical overview of transboundary water relations in the ET basin, emphasizing the prevalence of bilateralism. It then lays out the conceptual and methodological foundations of discourse analysis, drawing on key literature and analytical categories such as presupposition, predication, and subject positioning. The core section applies this framework to four key water agreements between T & uuml;rkiye and Iraq, highlighting thematic shifts and evolving actor roles. A discussion section synthesizes findings through Doty's (1993) discourse model, emphasizing how identities and relations are constructed over time. Finally, the conclusion reflects on the implications of these discursive trends for the future of water diplomacy in the region. The T & uuml;rkiye-Iraq case reveals how bilateral agreements can evolve into discursive tools that align with evolving global water management paradigms, offering politically sensitive basins a transferable approach to linking contested transboundary water issues with more comprehensive and partnership-based water diplomacy.Article Towards Water Regionalism? Examining the Linkages Between Water, Infrastructures, and Regionalism in Turkey(Routledge, 2024) Sayan, R.C.; Bilgen, A.; Kibaroğlu, A.Moving beyond the purely material understanding of infrastructures, new perspectives in infrastructural regionalism assert that infrastructures and regions simultaneously shape each other. Drawing on this reciprocal relationship, we introduce the concept of ‘water regionalism’ to examine how regional factors, dynamics, and complexities shape water infrastructures, and how water infrastructures concurrently shape regions. Through qualitative research methodologies, we empirically demonstrate how this concept operates in practice by examining the history of regional planning and hydraulic infrastructure development in Turkey, particularly the process of how the South-eastern Anatolia Project (GAP) and the GAP region have shaped each other since the 1970s. © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.Article Citation - WoS: 2Turkiye's Water Security Policy: Energy, Agriculture, and Transboundary Issues(SETA Foundation, 2022) Kibaroğlu, AyşegülWater security refers to the availability of adequate quantities and qualities of water for societal needs and resilient ecosystems in the context of current conditions and future global change. Achieving water security is directly linked to food and energy security, protecting and preserving eco systems, and addressing key vulnerabilities and risks from climate change. Good water governance –including transboundary cooperation– is a crit ical feature of any effort to achieve water security. Yet the concept of water security remains abstract and broad. In an attempt to make the concept of water security-relevant in practice, this paper delineates Türkiye’s water se curity policy and practices through institutional and cross-sectoral (energy and food) analysis. Specific attention is paid to Türkiye’s transboundary water security policies.Article Citation - WoS: 47Citation - Scopus: 70Barriers in Participative Water Governance: a Critical Analysis of Community Development Approaches(MDPI, 2022) Shunglu, Raghav; Withanachchi, Chandana Rohana; Kibaroǧlu, Ayşegül; Köpke, Sören; Kanoi, Lav; Nissanka, Thushantha S.; Gamage, Deepika U.; Withanachchi, Sisira S.; Koepke, SoerenParticipatory approaches within development programs involving common-pool resources are intended to revive a community’s role in managing these resources. Certainly, to ensure the successful and equitable use of such resources, community participation is essential. However, in many cases, attempts at applying a participatory approach often fail to genuinely engage all subgroups within a community due to assumptions of homogeneity and a lack of understanding of the deep socio-political divisions between people. As a result, development programs can be plagued by these pre-existing power relations, potentially resulting in tokenistic community participation and the continuation of elite capture of natural resources to the same extent or worse than before a development program has begun. This in turn can negatively impact good governance and the fair distribution of a common pool resource. This paper explores the use of participatory approaches in water projects, assessing to what degree power relationships impact water management programs. Using a qualitative approach, the paper identifies key challenges of participatory water governance through case studies from Turkey, India, and Sri Lanka, exploring: lack of social trust, elite capture of participatory processes, power heterogeneity and imbalances at the micro-level, and a lack of inclusive participation in decision-making. Based on the analysis of these case studies, this paper argues that it is essential for participatory development interventions to understand socio-political power relations within a community—an inherently complex and contested space. The so-called “exit strategy” of a community project play a key role to decide the project sustainability that grants the “community ownership” of the project. Such an understanding can bring about greater success in development interventions attempting to address water-related issues.Book Part Exploring Environmental Justice: Meaningful Participation and Turkey’s Small-Scale Hydroelectricity Power Plants Practices(Springer, 2020) Kibaroğlu, Ayşegül; Sayan, CanerThis chapter explores the emerging concept of meaningful participation within the framework of environmental justice, with specific reference to Turkey’s recent experience of building several small-scale hydroelectricity power plants (HEPP). The paper scrutinizes the HEPP process, including its entrenched legal framework, and attempts to come up with suggestions to elaborate further on the concept of meaningful participation.Review Citation - WoS: 14Citation - Scopus: 19Water and ‘imperfect Peace’ in the Euphrates–tigris River Basin(Oxford University Press (OUP), 2021) Kibaroğlu, Ayşegül; Sayan, Ramazan CanerTransboundary water politics in the Euphrates–Tigris (ET) basin has long developed in tandem with the various political confrontations that have taken place among Iraq, Syria and Turkey. However, since the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the beginnings of domestic unrest in Syria in 2011, transboundary water relations have been pursued within the context of an unstable international security environment, particularly with the emergence of non-state armed groups who have used water as a weapon against their opponents.1 At the same time, however, cooperative mechanisms have also been initiated by riparian politicians, diplomats and water line ministries as well as informal and external actors. This article sets out to examine the various emerging actors and mechanisms operating in this context, arguing that their coexistence in the basin demonstrates a case of ‘imperfect peace’. The concept of ‘imperfect peace’ is used to acknowledge the fact that relations can be reinforced through peaceful interactions, negotiations, agreements, treaties and diplomacy at multiple levels, even in conditions that do not amount to war, but where violence is present.2With a specific focus on the ET river basin, the main objective of this article is to address policy-relevant research questions, such as how various actors and mechanisms operate within and influence transboundary water relations under the conditions of ‘imperfect peace’, and what kind of joint security mechanisms the riparian states should create to cope with violent non-state actors who control water and infrastructure. In reflecting on these questions, the article will analyse the strategic role that water plays in environmental peacebuilding and reflect on possible ways to improve the protection of water during and after armed conflicts.Article Citation - WoS: 8Citation - Scopus: 10The Role of Irrigation Associations and Privatization Policies in Irrigation Management in Turkey(Taylor & Francis, 2020) Kibaroğlu, AyşegülIn Turkey, the nearly total transfer of irrigation systems to the irrigation associations improved the collection of irrigation fees, but not water use efficiency. The Irrigation Associations Law initially accorded decentralized irrigation associations clear legal status as decentralized entities, but amendments to the law have restored significant government control over their administration. Privatization through service procurement and build-operate-transfer models was promoted by an enabling legal environment, but failed in implementation due to lack of consensus among stakeholders.Book Part Citation - WoS: 8Citation - Scopus: 7Turkey(Springer International Publishing, 2019) Kibaroğlu, Ayşegül; Topçu, Sevilay; Kadirbeyoğlu, ZeynepThis chapter reviews irrigation development and policy with specific references to the main water- and land-based regional socioeconomic development projects in Turkey. It analyzes the expansion of irrigation investment as well as institutional and technological changes in irrigation policy and development in parallel with policies of liberalization and decentralization in the late 1980s. The chapter also discusses institutional changes in the management of the irrigation systems as a result of (partial) transfer of management of large-scale irrigation systems to a variety of water user organizations. Finally, it describes current technological and institutional problems and the further challenges to the irrigation sector, such as infrastructure deterioration, risks of drought, environmental and ecological system degradation, and insufficient investment. It also notes the efforts to equip new irrigation schemes with modern technology, such as closed pipes for conveying water instead of open channels, and water-saving micro-irrigation methods rather than surface irrigation techniques.Book Part Citation - WoS: 1Legal and Institutional Foundations of Turkey’s Domestic and Transboundary Water Policy(Springer International Publishing, 2020) Kibaroğlu, Ayşegül; Kibaroglu, AysegulTurkey’s water policy and management is a culmination of various laws and regulations governed by a range of national ministries and executive administrations. Over time, several changes were made in the existing legislation and institutions, which ended up with complex water management system in Turkey. Existing surface and groundwater laws have become insufficient in responding to the increasing water demand and diminishing water supply. On the other hand, neoliberal transformation of Turkish economy in the 1980s and the country’s harmonization process with the European Union since the early 2000s have produced new primary and secondary water legislations in the domestic water, irrigation, hydropower and the environment sectors. In this context, this chapter, firstly, describes the principal water legislation in Turkey. Secondly, main water institutions are depicted with specific attention to the reorganization processes of various key ministries due to domestic and regional political changes. Finally, Turkey’s transboundary water policy is delineated with its basic principles and prevailing practices.Article Citation - WoS: 55Citation - Scopus: 64Water–energy–food Nexus in a Transboundary Context: the Euphrates–tigris River Basin as a Case Study(Taylor & Francis, 2015) Gürsoy, Sezin Iba; Kibaroğlu, AyşegülThe interlinkage between water, energy and food security and its transboundary relevance is becoming increasingly important. The paper analyses the evolution of transboundary water resources management in the Euphrates–Tigris basin with specific reference to interlinkages between water, food and energy policies at national and transboundary levels, and it explores how the policy shifts at the highest decision-making level have served to produce synergies for cooperation among the riparians or vice versa.
