On the 13th of February, the Turkish Industry and Business Association (TUSIAD) held its standard annual general assembly in Istanbul. In a surprising turn of events, however, shortly after the meeting, the Association’s Chairperson of the Board, Orhan Turan, and Chairperson of the High Advisory Council, Omer Aras, were quickly taken to the Istanbul Prosecution Office by police, demanding to state their plea. The accusation? Allegedly attempting to influence the fair trial and publicly propagating misstatements. President Erdogan’s reaction? “TUSIAD crossed the line. You will know your place in the New Türkiye. If you are a business association, you will learn to act like a business association.”

What so frustrated Erdogan was the Association’s innuendo concerning the politicization of the country’s judicial system, statements about disorders regarding work safety and reproaching of the government over the country’s record high inflation rate. As Omer Aras, Chairperson of the High Advisory Council, affirmed:

“Recent developments have caused deep concern in society. Elected mayors are being removed from office, and trustees are being appointed in their place. An investigation is first launched into a political party leader, and then he is arrested for a different reason. (…) A fire may break out, it happens; but how could 78 people die? [Recalling the hotel disaster in Kartalkaya ski resort.] It is because of improperly constructed buildings and lack of inspection. Last year, nine workers lost their lives in a gold mine in the Ilic district of Erzincan and 301 miners in Soma. We have rules, but many do not comply, there is not enough control. The main reason for these deaths is a system failure. It is very clear how this system will be fixed. The system must have a self-correction mechanism. Those who are responsible must resign, be held accountable and be replaced by competent people. (…) The reason for inflation was the government’s policies.”

According to Erdogan’s standards, yes, TUSIAD crossed the line.

What is TUSIAD?

If one were to make a to-do-list to understand the current state of Turkish politics and economy, TUSIAD should be at the top of the research requirements. The association was founded by a group of prominent industrialists in Tükiye in 1971, whom the majority were members of TISK (the Turkish Confederation of Employer Associations). According to the Association’s official website, TUSIAD is a voluntary, independent, non-governmental organization dedicated to promote welfare through private enterprise, whose activities are aimed at creating a social cohesion based on the competitive market economy, sustainable development and participatory democracy. Headquartered in Istanbul, the association has a representative office in the capitol Ankara on top of international representative offices in Brussels, Washington D.C., Paris and Berlin. TUSIAD is also a member of BusinessEurope—the largest confederation of national European industry organisations—with the Association having been one of the main bodies supporting Türkiye’s integration within the European Union. Today, TUSIAD’s member companies account for 80% of the country’s total corporate tax revenue.

The 70s’ Turmoil

The year TUSIAD was established, 1971, was a turbulent era for the country. Former Turkish president Demirel’s cabinet had just resigned following a military memorandum, threatening a coup d’etat unless the government resigned. Universities, trade unions and rural areas were bubbling with anger, demanding welfare improvements, and opposing the far-right paramilitary Grey Wolves movement, with some even taking up arms for a pro-Soviet revolution. Almost all social segments, however, had their representative organizations favouring the relatively liberal nature of the 1961 constitution—except the business community. While Türkiye faced challenges in foreign politics, including the invasion of Cyprus and the confrontation with the US over poppy farming, as well as domestic issues like the growth of Islamist movements and street battles between the Grey Wolves and left-revolutionary groups, TUSIAD was in its puberty stage. It was by 1979, a climax year of domestic terror and deep economical crisis for the country, that TUSIAD made its first big move in terms of political influence.

Political influence

Although TUSIAD was not very influential in politics in its early years, it gradually gained members with heftier economic and political weight towards the end of the 1970s. The campaign it launched on May 15, 1979, by placing newspaper advertisements harshly criticizing the government, played a critical role in the fall of the Ecevit cabinet. TUSIAD also supported the minority government formed after Ecevit under the leadership of Suleyman Demirel, playing a key role in the adoption of the January 24th Decisions (1980) which are widely considered the first serious steps at Türkiye’s transform into a Western-style liberal economy.

TUSIAD strongly supported the coup d’etat in 1980, purporting to put an end to the economical and social troubles of the country. Halit Narin, Chairman of the Turkish Confederation of Employer Associations (TISK) said in an interview regarding the coup d’etat, that “All parliamentary acts were in favor of the working class so far. Workers were all pleased then, now we will be pleased.”

General Evren, the leader of the 1980 coup also said, “If the so-called January 24th Decisions had not been followed by the September 12th coup [of 1980], I have no doubt that those measures would have ended in fiasco. Thanks to such a strict military regime, those measures have given results.”

At this point, it’s necessary to underline the fact that the Turkish Armed Forces had always had a strong tutelage over civil politics. The Military in Türkiye always claimed to be on the title deeds of the Turkish Republic, founded by General Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and other army elites in 1923 following a victory in the War of Independence. Being a huge topic deserving of another article, the AKP-era could also be described as the history of the tussle between civil power and military involvement.

The 90s: ‘Not happy’ with poll results

TUSIAD and the business world in Türkiye were pleased under Turgut Ozal’s extremely liberal governmental actions, initializing the privatization of the state economic enterprises, unleashing the foreign currencies in trade and legally limiting the trade unions’ activities during 1980s. Right after the Islamist Welfare Party of Erbakan won the 1995 general elections, TUSIAD announced for the second time in its history, through meetings covered in the press, its support for the formation of a coalition between the centre-right neoliberal Motherland Party and the centre-right conservative True Path Party—parties which reached second and third in parliament seats gained, and hence arguably rebuffing the electoral stance of the poll results. Nonetheless, Erbakan formed the coalition in 1996 with the True Path Party, establishing the first Islamist-leaning prime ministership of Türkiye.

The “post-modern” coup of February 28, 1997

Erbakan’s approach and political practices would soon start colliding with the traditional elites’ secular and EU/Western-oriented stance established since the 1950s. Amidst his addresses were, for example, mentions of an Islam Union and Islamic NATO, carrying a made-up Islam Dinar rather than a Euro in his pocket and visiting Qaddafi in his Sahara tent, all the while listening to rebukes of secular, democratic and western allies.

As expected, such surfaced images horripilated army generals and business elites alike who had no intention of giving up trade with the West or establishing a customs union with Islamic countries—apprehensions that were likewise shared by the general public and media. Indeed, Erbakan was chasing not only an axis shift, but also a huge paradigm change for the country. And in consolidation of these perceptions, he later held a speech where he openly wondered if this change would occur “either by shedding of blood, or not”—a statement that turned him into a matter of national security in many army officials’ eyes.

His unofficial iftar dinner invitation for the leaders of major Islamic sects at the prime minister’s resident became the last drop for the leading staff of the armed forces. After a process of pressure and the tumultuary National Security Council meeting held on February 28th, 1997, Erbakan presented his resignation letter to President Demirel, marking a “post-modern coup d’etat” or a “semi-coup” in Turkish recent history.

TUSIAD and the February 28th memorandum

According to a statement by pro-Erdogan journalist Emin Pazarci, TUSIAD members were the financial backers of the civilian bodies that paved the way for this so-called post-modern coup:

“TUSIAD acted like the local representative of big western companies. Domestic and national capital was not important for them. Who overthrew the Welfare Party – True Path Party government then was TUSIAD. Their financial power and media power appeared immediately. The financial backers of the anti-government campaign then were among TUSIAD members. When the domestic capital which is called the ‘Anatolian Tigers’ established a good relationship with the government, TUSIAD members started having serious troubles and they struggled with the government.”

In a recent editorial article, “Sol”, the official newspaper of the Communist Party of Türkiye, stated the approach that just like today, a “capitalist mind” was in charge then:

“The aim was to take the necessary action against the unstable atmosphere of the 90s. Meetings that TUSIAD organized and the reports that they ordered played a critical role amid tensions between the National Security Council and Welfare – True Path coalition. Today, the prominent public indictment is the guardianship of a military intervention and the only sample given is the February 28th. However, the February 28th intervention of which TUSIAD and other capitalist bodies were a part, paved the way for the AK Party to dominate the political power in the country.”

It is worth mentioning, however, that the TUSIAD’s interference in the February 28th memorandum had never been proven. Nonetheless, almost all social and political segments, including the writer of this article agree on the premise that business elites of Türkiye in 1997 did all they could to get rid of Erbakan’s Islamist administration that had a tendency of humiliating the reputation of the country and of revising the secular essence and Western-allied character of the republican regime.

Dr. Frankenstein Syndrome

Erbakan kept true to his struggle but would never get the chance to regain the power in the country. However, a group of relatively young politicians in his party were seeing that a different result could never be achieved with the same strategy. Their leader was Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Mayor of Istanbul, a longtime member of the Welfare Party and one of the best pupils of Erbakan. After failed attempts at gaining power within their existing party, he and his friends decided to form a brand new one. And so, AKP was born from the womb of the Welfare Party. Erdogan said he took off his National Vision clothes, expressing that he had no more connection with Erbakan’s National Vision ideology and claiming that AKP would be a conservative-democrat party, having no issues with a secular regime. President of the USA, George W. Bush welcomed him in White House before he took the office of prime ministership, clearly expressing the Washington administration’s support for him.

TUSIAD was also a strong proponent of Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He seemed like a figure of reconciliation in the middle of the fight between the secular civil and military elites and rising Islamist flows. In 2002, Tuncay Ozilhan, TUSIAD’s Chairperson, in an apparent attempt to reassure, said “We are telling Europeans that the AK Party is a secular party and holds tight the secular frame of Türkiye. We are telling them that the AK Party is just a conservative democrat party like the ones in Europe.”

Just before Erdogan took power, former Prime Minister Ecevit told the Millliyet newspaper that TUSIAD should not repeat its mistake in terms of political influence, referring to the newspaper advertisements in 1979 that allegedly led to the fall of his cabinet.

Today, however, after more than 20 years, leaders of TUSIAD are being taken to the Prosecution Office by police with accusations of publicly propagating misstatements, referring to the Turkish Penal Code’s controversial article of 217/A, also known as the Code of Censorship by MLSA. During the week that this article was finished, two chairpersons of TUSIAD, Turan and Aras, were requested one to five years of imprisonment by the Prosecutor. It is worth mentioning, moreover, that no other business associations or prominent business leader made in-person statements about TUSIAD case as of yet.

Many people, NGOs and even foreign countries are feeling regret for their support for Erdogan in the early 2000s, with TUSIAD today obviously being one of them. Inevitably, such a circumstance is an arguable reminder of the story of Dr. Frankenstein, turned into a political scene.