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TÜSİAD aims to reach all of society through new head Boyner
“Weren’t we a bridge between civilizations? Weren’t we a model country for an alliance of civilizations? Weren’t we the cradle of tolerance and thousands of cultures? What happened to us? We are skeptical about each other instead of solving our problems together. We cannot talk, but instead shout at each other. Why are we seeing differences as a weakness instead of a strong point? We all long for peace,” she noted in her speech, adding: “We are dreaming of a TÜSİAD that is in contact with all of society.”
For a long time, TÜSİAD faced harsh criticism for being extremely elitist and turning its back on the rest of society: specifically, on companies based in Anatolia. Can Paker, a prominent figure in the Turkish business world and civil society, notes that İstanbul-based TÜSİAD member companies felt uncomfortable with the rising competitive power of Anatolia-based firms. However, he remarks, the situation will be normalized with the further growth of Anatolian capital.
Yet, TÜSİAD’s board structure, which used to include İstanbul-based companies only, changed as Boyner came to the helm. The new board includes names from companies based in Anatolia, such as Muharrem Yılmaz, chairman of Bursa-based Sütaş, Erman Ilıcak, chairman of Ankara’s Rönesans Construction, and Lucien Arkas, chairman of İzmir’s Arkas Holding. Likewise, the number of Anatolian companies that became members of TÜSİAD has been on the rise for a while.
Once known as the “Male Bosses Club,” TÜSİAD has been undergoing a significant change in this regard. Boyner is the second chairwoman of the association, after her predecessor, Arzuhan Doğan Yalçındağ.
‘Democracy deficit’
According to Fuat Keyman of Koç University, TÜSİAD needs a domestic transformation to reposition itself according to the many changes Turkey is going through. The association should restructure itself as a nongovernmental organization rather than being an economic pressure group, he opines.
Boyner’s speech was indeed a glimmer of hope for such change. “Turkey not only has an employment deficit and a current account deficit but also a ‘democracy deficit’,” she said at the assembly. Underlining Turkey’s need for democratization, she complained that it is “unacceptable for Turkey to still being governed by a coup Constitution 30 years after the Sept. 12 coup.”
As the most influential business group of the country, TÜSİAD had received severe criticism for remaining silent in the face of violations of democracy despite the fact that the association continuously states its support for the European Union accession process.
But Boyner is known for her liberal and democratic stance, which increases hopes that TÜSİAD will be more sensitive to democracy under her governance. In the early 1990s, she worked actively in her husband, Cem Boyner’s, widely respected New Democracy Movement (YDH), which supported liberal values such as an open society, pluralism, free trade and liberty. The movement later became a political party but failed to enter Parliament.
As a founding member of the Women Entrepreneurs Association of Turkey (KAGİDER), Boyner also worked to increase the number of women in the business world along with supporting a parliamentary quota system for women. Just before the 2007 local elections, she extended her support to campaign for the Association for Supporting Women Candidates in Politics (KADER) by posing with a mustache in a billboard that read, “Do we have to be male in order to have a place in Parliament?”
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