Blame Games of Weather‐Related Disasters: A Qualitative Research on Political Rhetoric of Government and Opposition in Türkiye

ABSTRACT Disasters exacerbate political tensions, making politicians more vulnerable to criticisms from both internal and external actors. This vulnerability fuels political actors' desire to undermine their rivals' popularity through blame games. While blame games are frequent and intense in Turkish politics, how they are linguistically constructed has received less scholarly attention. This study aimed to understand how Turkish governmental and oppositional actors utilize blame‐game strategies in the context of weather‐related disasters. Through a content analysis of politicians' statements across 41 weather‐related events, the study establishes a framework for analyzing blame games in non‐Western democracies and identifies a Turkish style of weather‐related disaster blame game, which has salient, yet slightly distant, characteristics. The study concludes that all political actors engage in a blame game as part of political competition. However, their communication strategies, including both blame‐making and blame‐avoidance, vary in frequency and linguistic style depending on their position. Governmental actors deflect blame by highlighting past actions and promising aid, while the opposition counters by offering vague policy suggestions. Both sides make blames, but the government criticizes past policies and the opposition's current actions, while the opposition focuses on the government's current policies and the actors' potentially unethical conduct.