Transnationalization as a Discourse and Oppositional Strategy in Türkiye's Competitive Authoritarian Regime

Introduction/ Background/ Aim: Despite the growing body of literature on the advancement of authoritarian tactics and tools in competitive authoritarian regimes, we still lack sufficient knowledge about the discourses and strategies that the opposition creates and uses against populist-authoritarian governments. With the case study of Turkey, this article introduces "transnationalization" as one of the innovative discourses and strategies based on which the opposition bloc succeeds in exploiting its tactics and tools in order to maintain its political position in the political arena. And it has become an identity. Introducing the governance methods and techniques of authoritarian regimes is one of the other goals.

Method and theoretical framework:The method of this research is based on qualitative research with the approach of "process tracing" technique. The content of this research is based on documentary-library sources and analysis of Twitter accounts and is presented in the form of the theoretical framework of "transnationalization".

Discussion and/or Results: Transnationalization is defined as a discourse and strategy through which local leaders under the leadership of the opposition change local and global boundaries by creating a conscious link with the liberal-democratic world to expand their space for maneuver. Based on this, the question that is raised is that the opposition bloc of Turkey, focusing on the performance of the mayor of Istanbul, uses which methods and mechanisms to operationalize the discourse and strategy of transnationalization? The answer to this question, which was mostly obtained by analyzing the content of the international Twitter accounts of the mayor of Istanbul, seems that the municipality of Istanbul, in order to maintain its position and credit the political nature of the opposition bloc and to deal with the political threats of the ruling structure, uses material and symbolic tools. And this political strategy and rational and normative motivations have been exploited to the maximum and successfully.

Conclusion: Based on the study of the situation in Turkey, which is considered an example of competitive authoritarian regimes, transnationalization as a discourse and strategy of opposition struggle has been implemented by the municipal institution under the leadership of the opposition bloc (independent variable). Is. So that the mayor of Istanbul belonging to the opposition bloc became a transnational identity materially, symbolically and politically through establishing international relations, showing commitment to global and liberal norms and increasing his agency over foreign policy programs. (The dependent variable) Also, this research highlights the role of international and global forces in supporting democracy and how they can provide effective assistance to democratic agents in authoritarian regimes. As conventional efforts to promote democracy have generated backlash and strong anti-Western sentiments in many countries, international democratic forces no longer have the power or desire to engage in democracy promotion, competing authoritarian leaders like Erdogan in Turkey, a long-standing tradition. They inflame nationalist sentiments by accusing the opposition forces of being in alliance with international "enemies". Nevertheless, this article showed that in Turkey, local leaders under the leadership of the opposition struggled to establish a link with the West as a result of their rational and normative motivations and were in dire need of support from international institutions. Through the symbolic, material, and political means of transnationalization, the mayor of Istanbul aimed to build international credibility and enhance his ability to govern, which is especially important when opposition-controlled municipalities are subject to central government discrimination.