Each province and town in Turkey has a state house, a military headquarters, and a chamber building.

Drinking tea all day is an integral part of our tradition. If a foreigner who comes to Turkey makes a list of what he or she remembers, drinking tea is definitely in the top five if not in the top three. We drink tea at every opportunity. We drink it during meetings. We offer it to our guests. We order it immediately when we meet with our friends. We drink it alone for the sheer joy of it. We drink it at every opportunity. Tea is an integral part of our tradition. So are chambers of commerce and industry. In fact, these organizations predate tea in Turkey. I think I started to get to know Turkey better after I met the chamber community. My experiences refute the argument in Turkey that what is voluntary is civilian and what is compulsory cannot be civilian. I think this is a widely held misconception. It stems from the Anglo-Saxons and it is completely wrong. Today I want to share with you my personal experience with chambers of commerce and industry. It is for you to decide. Turkey’s chamber system has been undergoing a rapid transformation along with the Turkish economy. Let me tell you how.

I will first tell how the history of chambers predates that of tea in Turkey. Tea was introduced to Turkey i the twelfth or thirteenth century, as a medicine.  Consumption of tea as a beverage became widespread after the beginning of production in 1879.  The organization of professional chambers dates back to the twelfth or thirteenth century if the ahi organizations are considered to have been guilds.  The official organization of professionals, however, started in the 1770s when the guild system was legalized. The guilds brought together artisans, just as the professional committees of chambers do today, in order to voice their mutual interests. The voice of a chamber is the common ground for all occupations united under that chamber. Today, the chamber system is as customary as tea for the people of Turkey. It is involved in the institutional culture. Each province and town has a state house, a military headquarters, and a chamber building. The first two belong to the state and the third belongs to the people, particularly since 1950. Period.

I got to know the chamber community in the last decade. Currently, I am the acting rector of the TOBB University of Economics and Technology (TOBB-ETÜ). I became familiar with the community years ago, when I was working at the Central Bank. We were carrying out programs to promote the 2001 economic stability program. To be honest, I was unaware that Turkey had a strong and civilian private sector organization, just as the habit of drinking tea on all occasions is for those unfamiliar with Turkey. The first thing that catches the eye of the uninitiated in the chamber system is the diversity and the tradition of democratic debate. This has played a significant role in the institutional development in Turkey. Of course different businesses in a chamber have different interests. Different ethnic groups and beliefs as well as any other issue concerning Turkey have influence on the chambers. Each and every element in effect in Turkey has a voice in the TOBB. The diversity of elements organized under the associations of the business community is echoed in chamber committees and the TOBB via democratic elections. This is the source of competition in chamber elections.

What does compulsory membership rule bring about? It unites the entire business community in a single representative body. In this geography of weak institutional structure, it facilitates institutional development. The presence of democratic elections is the key civilian element of the chamber community. What is voluntary is weak, not civilian. Or let me correct: in this geography, what is voluntary is not civilian but weak.

This commentary was published in Radikal daily on 26.03.2013