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There have been numbers of academic studies that connect the Syrian civil war with climate change. According to this view, the Syrian civil war is yet another example of how climate change may trigger and exacerbate armed conflicts. This approach's main argument is that the long-standing drought in Syria is a consequence of the climate change that led to mass domestic migration and triggered the uprising. The study aims to analyse how the securitising elites portrayed climate change as a threat by exemplifying the Syrian civil war and by showing why such securitisation is problematic. This paper argues that the securitisation of climate change is problematic, owing to the following reasons. First, the causality between climate change and its role in the erupt of the Syrian uprising is still debated. Second, it overshadows the incompetence and the responsibility of the Baath Regime. Third, the weak spots between climate change and the civil war give climate change deniers to make counterarguments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the purpose of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in Those Countries Experiencing Serious Drought and/or Desertification, Particularly in Africa (UNCCD), desertification was defined as "land degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas caused by the complex interactions among the biological, political, social, cultural and economic factors, including climatic variations and human activities". Today, real deserts and desertification-prone areas existing over hyper-arid, dry, semi-arid, dry sub-humid areas overspread about 47 per cent of the Earth's land. Desertification-prone semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas in Turkey, on the other hand, cover about 35 per cent of the country. This rate reaches about 60 per cent with joining of the semi-humid climate conditions. Although the relationships are very clear between the climate change and arid conditions and the desertification, studies and publications at the national level in Turkey towards the Convention to Combat Desertification have been mostly considered in terms of the land degradation occurred due to the human activities and natural factors. However, climate change and dryness dimension and relationship of the subject were not regarded. Consequently, it has been decided in this paper to attract attention for the insufficient applications in Turkey and to make a detailed analysis of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]