Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
6th INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION AND INNOVATIVE SCIENCES CONGRESS, Burdur, Türkiye, 24 - 25 Kasım 2022, ss.336-337
The
"special military operation" launched by Russia on the territory of
Ukraine on February 24, 2022 was considered by the world public as Russia's
invasion of Ukraine. Russia, which tried to legitimize its military presence in
Ukraine by citing many reasons such as ensuring the neutrality of Ukraine,
freeing it from the Nazis and preventing the possible genocide against Russian
nationals in Ukraine, brought the claim that Ukraine was trying to produce a
"Nuclear Dirty Bomb" after a while. By dirty bombs it is usually
meant radiological weapons/bombs. However, with the "Nuclear Dirty Bomb"
claim, Russia wanted to give a potential basis for its claims by referring to
the nuclear capacity of Ukraine. Thus, Ukraine, which was included in the
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Regime after the end of the Cold War and handed it
over to Russia to destroy its nuclear weapons with the Budapest Memorandum it
signed, showed its intention to carry out its activities in the nuclear field
for peaceful purposes. The International Atomic Energy Agency sent observers to
Ukraine to investigate Russia's claims. This decision was taken at the request
of Ukraine, which wanted to prove that Russia's claims were not based on
evidence. It would be an over-optimistic point of view to think that Russia
would abandon its claims if the agency's investigations do not reveal evidence
of Ukraine's activities to produce nuclear dirty bombs. Because this perception
of security threat, which Russia is trying to build through discourse, is a
very useful tool for the policies that are trying to be sustained, that is, it
is a part of the "securitization" policy. In this study, the
allegations of nuclear dirty bombs, which are tried to be kept in the security
agenda as a part of Russia's "military operation" against Ukraine,
will be focused on and these claims will be examined within the framework of the
securitization approach. In this context, the approach adopted by the
Copenhagen School will be exhibited and it will be focused on how these
allegations are constructed as discourse rather than their reality as a
security threat. Therefore, at the center of the study will be the role played
by the allegations in securitization policies, not the debates on whether the
allegations made by Russia are true or not.
Keywords: Dirty Bomb, Nuclear
Dirty Bomb, Securitization, Ukraine, Russia, Copenhagen School