TÜSİAD, the Turkish Industry and Business Association (), is

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

's top business organization. Founded in 1971, TÜSİAD is a voluntary, independent, non-governmental organization dedicated to promoting public welfare through private enterprise. TÜSİAD promotes principles of

participatory democracy Participatory democracy, participant democracy, participative democracy, or semi-direct democracy is a form of government in which Citizenship, citizens participate individually and directly in political decisions and policies that affect their ...

, a competitive market economy,

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, and universal freedoms and

human rights Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...

. The Association supports independent research and policy discussions on important social and economic issues in Turkey and abroad. TÜSİAD is composed of CEOs and executives from major industrial and service companies in Turkey, including

Fortune 500 The ''Fortune'' 500 is an annual list compiled and published by ''Fortune (magazine), Fortune'' magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States Joint-stock company#Closely held corporations and publicly traded corporations, corporations by ...

companies. The current Chairman is Orhan Turan and the Secretary-General is Ebru Dicle.

About

TÜSİAD represents more than 4,000 member companies, which represent half of Turkey's value-added, 80% of Turkey’s total foreign trade volume, more than 50% of private sector employment, and 80% of corporate tax revenue.

Structure

TÜSİAD headquarters are in Istanbul, and there are seven representative offices:

Ankara Ankara is the capital city of Turkey and List of national capitals by area, the largest capital by area in the world. Located in the Central Anatolia Region, central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5,290,822 in its urban center ( ...

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, and

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. TÜSİAD's activities are structured around round tables led by members of the board of directors and 36 working groups. TÜSİAD partners with the

Brookings Institution The Brookings Institution, often stylized as Brookings, is an American think tank that conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in economics (and tax policy), metropolitan policy, governance, foreign policy, global econo ...

, the German Marshall Fund of the United States, and the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF). TÜSİAD is a member of the Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD (BIAC), Global Business Coalition, and BusinessEurope.

Political context

TÜSİAD is recognized as Turkey's secular, pro-Westernization business organization, while MÜSİAD caters to conservative Muslim entrepreneurs. In the early 2000s, TÜSİAD coordinated heavily with the newly elected AKP majority, with the shared aim of joining the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

. TÜSİAD is also credited with laying the groundwork for Turkish support for the Annan Plan on

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

. However, as the EU accession process began to deteriorate in 2006, then-Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's administration reversed course away from the EU, driving a wedge between the two. Since then, TÜSİAD has embarked on a project of

public diplomacy In international relations, public diplomacy broadly speaking, is any of the various government-sponsored efforts aimed at communicating directly with foreign publics to establish a dialogue designed to inform and influence with the aim of bui ...

, opening representative offices in European capitals and

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

to engage and collaborate with relevant actors in the private sector and the general public. In June 2016, TÜSİAD released a statement criticizing a proposed law which would enhance the government’s authority to appoint boards of trustees for companies. The controversial article was later removed from the law. Turkish President

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (born 26 February 1954) is a Turkish politician who is the 12th and current president of Turkey since 2014. He previously served as the 25th prime minister of Turkey, prime minister from 2003 to 2014 as part of the Jus ...

has criticized TÜSİAD on multiple occasions. In April 2015, Erdoğan was critical of comments made about the Turkish economy. In December 2014, Erdoğan criticized the organization for apparently sidestepping his office after then TÜSİAD President Haluk Dinçer explained the organization works with the prime minister and ministers whose business is related to the organization’s efforts, not the president. Though occasionally at odds politically with the ruling AKP, they are a united front on economic matters; immediately following the July 15th 2016 coup attempt, TÜSİAD took out ads in major world newspapers and held high-level meetings with American and European think tanks, NGOs, and government officials in tandem with Turkish government officials in order to brandish Turkey's image abroad and reassure investors of Turkey's economic and political health.

Presidents

* 1971–1979 Feyyaz Berker * 1980–1984 Ali Koçman * 1985 Şahap Kocatopçu * 1986 Sakıp Sabancı * 1987–1988 Ömer Dinçkök * 1989–1990 Cem Boyner * 1991–1992 Bülent Eczacıbaşı * 1993–1996 Halis Komili * 1997–1998 Muharrem Kayhan * 1999–2000 Erkut Yücaoğlu * 2001–2003 Tuncay Özilhan * 2004–2006 Ömer Sabancı * 2007–2009 Arzuhan Doğan Yalçındağ * 2010–2013 Ümit Nazlı Boyner * 2013–2014 * 2014–2015 Haluk Dinçer * 2015–2017 Cansen Başaran–Symes * 2017–2019 Erol Bilecik * 2019–2022 Simone Kaslowski * 2022– Orhan Turan

External links

TÜSİAD (Official Website)

TÜSİAD Washington Representative Office

References

{{Authority control Business organizations based in Turkey Conservatism in Turkey Organizations established in 1971 Organizations based in Istanbul 1971 establishments in Turkey