FADING GREEN: DEMOCRATIC BACKSLIDING AND ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENTS IN TÜRKİYE

This thesis was conducted in pursuit of depicting the relationship between democratic backsliding and environmental movements in the country profile Türkiye. Türkiye's democratic backsliding has led to restrictions on the right to freedom of speech and assembly as a result environmental movements have struggled to plan successful demonstrations and advocate for sustainable policies; the restrictions have limited their ability to address urgent ecological issues as environmental activists face political and legal barriers to speaking out. To examine the relationship between the variables the Democracy Index of Freedom House's Country Profile (Türkiye) and the efficiency of environmental protest events is considered through assessment of the political opportunity structures that support and impede environmental movements as the main methods of the research. This research aims to emphasize the crucial connection between democratic backsliding and the difficulties faced by environmental movements in Türkiye by examining specific instances of how democratic erosion has restricted the political opportunity structures within environmental movements and impacted their capacity to make change.