This electronic thesis or dissertation has been downloaded from the King’s Research Portal at https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/ Turkey’s State-Business Relations Revisited: Islamic Business Associations and Policymaking in the AKP era Ilhan, Ebru Awarding institution: King's College London The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without proper acknowledgement. END USER LICENCE AGREEMENT Unless another licence is stated on the immediately following page this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ You are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work Under the following conditions: Attribution: You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Non Commercial: You may not use this work for commercial purposes. No Derivative Works - You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work. Any of these conditions can be waived if you receive permission from the author. Your fair dealings and other rights are in no way affected by the above. Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 25. Sep. 2021 This electronic theses or dissertation has been downloaded from the King’s Research Portal at https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/ Title: Turkey’s State-Business Relations Revisited: Islamic Business Associations and Policymaking in the AKP era Author: Ebru Ilhan The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without proper acknowledgement. END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ You are free to: Share: to copy, distribute and transmit the work Under the following conditions: Attribution: You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Non Commercial: You may not use this work for commercial purposes. No Derivative Works - You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work. Any of these conditions can be waived if you receive permission from the author. Your fair dealings and other rights are in no way affected by the above. Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Turkey’s State-Business Relations Revisited: Islamic Business Associations and Policymaking in the AKP era Ebru İlhan PhD in War Studies School of Social Sciences and Public Policy King’s College London 1 Table of Contents Abbreviations 4 Chapter 1: Introduction 9 Why revisit interest group theories? 10 Why study Turkey’s business associations? 12 Why focus on business-state relations in present-day Turkey? 19 How was the research fieldwork carried out and what were the methods used? 22 What lies ahead? 25 Chapter 2: Exploring the relationship between contemporary business associations and policymaking 26 Revisiting interest group theories 27 Business associations around the world: What the empirical evidence tells us 40 Islam and associationalism in the Middle East 52 Conclusion 58 Chapter 3: Turkish state corporatism and representation of business interests 60 Party politics, social class and corporatism 62 Laws and institutions of industrial relations in the Turkish Republic 65 Securitization and the corporatist tradition in Turkey 70 Bourgeois capitalism and business-state relations after the 1980 coup 77 Elite status and pragmatism: Turkey in the 1990s 83 Coming to terms with the persistence of corporatism/clientelism in Turkey 91 Chapter 4: Who are Turkey’s Muslim conservative business elite and how do they bargain through associations? 93 Turkey’s new Muslim conservative patrons 95 Securitization 96 Political marginalization 103 Economic marginalization 109 The values and morals of Turkey’s Muslim conservative businesspeople 116 Islamic morality and work ethic 118 Turkishness and Turkish nationalism 124 The glorification of the family 131 Policy bargaining in AKP era Turkey 134 Conclusion 155 Chapter 5: Media policies 156 Turkey’s media sector: a background 156 Media ownership and governance in Turkey: then and now 161 Locating the Islamic in Turkey’s media landscape 166 The forming of AKP’s media and Islamic business associations 171 The case of ATV-Sabah and TMSF 171 The case of Doğan Media Group 175 The case of the privatization of Türk Telekom 177 Conclusion 180 Chapter 6: Gender policies 182 The headscarf issue 183 2 Social policies on maternity, childbirth and abortion 192 Conclusion 200 Chapter 7: Islam as the red herring or the proverbial foe in state-business relations in AKP-era Turkey 202 Business associations and the state in the Turkish twenty-first century 205 A recent and fundamental challenge to the AKP’s claims of democratic policymaking: the Gezi Park movement 209 Wherefore art thou not reforming, TUSIAD? 215 Concluding remarks on the bumpy road ahead for Turkey’s business associations and the communities they represent 218 Bibliography 222 Table of Figures Figure 1: Media Groups in Turkey (2012) ............................................................... 159 Figure 2: Share of advertising revenue of major media groups (Source: Carat, 2013) 160 3 Abbreviations AA Anadolu Ajansı (Anatolia News Agency) AK-DER Ayrımcılığa Karşı Kadın Hakları Derneği (Association of Women’s Rights Against Discrimination) AKP Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi (Justice and Development Party) ANAP Anavatan Partisi (Motherland Party) ANSIFED Anadolu Sanayici ve İşadamları Federasyonu (Anatolia Federation of Industrialists and Businessmen) AP Adalet Partisi (Justice Party) ASKON Anadolu Arslanları İşadamları Derneği (Anatolian Lions Business Association) ASO Ankara Sanayi Odası (Ankara Chamber of Industry) BİK Basın İlan Konseyi (Press Advertising Council) CA Rekabet Kurumu (Competition Authority) CEEC Central and Eastern European countries CHA Cihan Haber Ajansı (Cihan News Agency) CHP Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi (Republican People’s Party) CUP İttihat ve Terakki Cemiyeti (Committee of Union and Progress) DGM Devlet Güvenlik Mahkemesi (State Security Court) DİB Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı (Directorate of Religious Affairs) DIBS Devlet İçi Borçlanma Senetleri (Government Debt Securities) DİSK Devrimci İşçi Sendikaları Konfederasyonu (Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions) DÖİK Sanayinin Rekabet Gücünün Geliştirilmesi Daimi Özel İhtisas Komisyonu (Permanent Special Commission to Develop Competitiveness of Turkey’s Industry) DP Demokrat Parti (Democrat Party) DYP Doğru Yol Partisi (True Path Party) EC European Commission EGM Emniyet Genel Müdürlüğü (Security General Directorate of Turkey) EMEP Emek Partisi (Party of Labor) EU European Union GAPGIAD Gaziantep Girişimci İşadamları Derneği (Gaziantep Association of Entrepreneurial Businessmen) GYV Gazeteciler ve Yazarlar Vakfı (Journalists and Writers Foundation) 4 HAK-İŞ Hak İşçi Sendikaları Konfederasyonu (The Rights Confederation of Workers Unions) HBA Horizontal business association İHAD İnsan Hakları Araştırmaları Derneği (Human Rights Research Association) İHH İnsan Hak ve Hürriyetleri İnsani Yardım Vakfı (The Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief) IMF International Monetary Fund İP İşçi Partisi (Workers’ Party) IRA Independent regulatory agency ISO İstanbul Sanayi Odası (Istanbul Chamber of Industry) ITO İstanbul Ticaret Odası (Istanbul Chamber of Trade) IWE Islamic work ethic JEC Joint Economic Commission JİTEM Jandarma İstihbarat ve Terörle Mücadele (Gendarmerie Intelligence and Anti-Terrorism Service) KAYSO Kayseri Sanayi Odası (Kayseri Chamber of Industry) KESK Kamu Emekçileri Sendikaları Konfederasyonu (Confederation of Public Sector Employee Unions) KOSGEB T.C. Küçük ve Orta Ölçekli İşletmeleri Geliştirme ve Destekleme İdaresi Başkanlığı (Republic of Turkey Small and Medium Enterprises Development Organization) MASK Milli Askeri Stratejik Konsept (National Military Strategic Concept) MEMUR-SEN Memur Sendikaları Konfederation (The Confederation of Public Service Employees Unions) MGK Milli Güvenlik Kurulu (National Security Council) MİT Milli İstihbarat Teşkilatı (National Intelligence Service) MSP Milli Selamet Partisi (National Salvation Party) MUSIAD Müstakil Sanayiciler ve İşadamları Derneği (Independent Industrialists’ and Businessmen Association) OYAK Ordu Yardımlaşma Kurumu (Armed Forces Pensions Fund) PKK Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan (Kurdistan Workers Party) PPP Public-private partnerships PWE Protestant work ethic RATEM Radyo Televizyon Yayıncıları Meslek Birliği (Professional Union of Broadcasting Organisations) RD Reklamverenler Derneği (Association of Advertisers) 5 RP Refah Partisi (Welfare Party) RTÜK Radyo ve Televizyon Üst Kurulu (Radio and Television Supreme Council) SADER Savunma Sanayicileri Derneği (Defense Industrialists’ Association) SASAD Savunma ve Havacılık Sanayii İmalatçıları Derneği (Defence and Aerospace Industries Manufacturers’ Association) SME Small-to-medium sized enterprises SSM Savunma Sanayii Müsteşarlığı (Undersecretariat