TÃÂSðAD, the Turkish Industry and Business Association (), is Turkey's top business organization. TÃÂSðAD represents more than 4,000 member companies, which represent half of Turkey's value-added, 80% of TurkeyâÂÂs total foreign trade volume, more than 50% of private sector employment, and 80% of corporate tax revenue.
Founded in 1971, TÃÂSðAD is a voluntary, independent, non-governmental organization dedicated to promoting public welfare through private enterprise. TÃÂSðAD promotes principles of participatory democracy, a competitive market economy, environmental sustainability, and universal freedoms and human rights. The Association supports independent research and policy discussions on important social and economic issues in Turkey and abroad. TÃÂSðAD is composed of CEOs and executives from major industrial and service companies in Turkey, including Fortune 500 companies. The current Chairman is Ozan Diren and the Secretary-General is Ebru Dicle.
TÃÂSðAD headquarters are in Istanbul, and there are seven representative offices: Ankara, Brussels, Washington, D.C., Paris, Berlin, Beijing, and London.
TÃÂSðAD's activities are structured around round tables led by members of the board of directors and 36 working groups.
TÃÂSðAD partners with the Brookings Institution, the German Marshall Fund of the United States, and the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).
TÃÂSðAD is a member of the Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD (BIAC), Global Business Coalition, and BusinessEurope.
TÃÂSðAD is recognized as Turkey's secular, pro-Westernization business organization, while MÃÂSðAD caters to conservative Muslim entrepreneurs. In the early 2000s, TÃÂSðAD coordinated heavily with the newly elected AKP majority, with the shared aim of joining the European Union. TÃÂSðAD is also credited with laying the groundwork for Turkish support for the Annan Plan on Cyprus. However, as the EU accession process began to deteriorate in 2006, then-Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÃÂan's administration reversed course away from the EU, driving a wedge between the two. Since then, TÃÂSðAD has embarked on a project of public diplomacy, opening representative offices in European capitals and Washington, D.C. to engage and collaborate with relevant actors in the private sector and the general public.
In June 2016, TÃÂSðAD released a statement criticizing a proposed law which would enhance the governmentâÂÂs authority to appoint boards of trustees for companies. The controversial article was later removed from the law.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip ErdoÃÂan has criticized TÃÂSðAD on multiple occasions. In April 2015, ErdoÃÂan was critical of comments made about the Turkish economy. In December 2014, ErdoÃÂan criticized the organization for apparently sidestepping his office after then TÃÂSðAD President Haluk Dinçer explained the organization works with the prime minister and ministers whose business is related to the organizationâÂÂs 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, TÃÂSðAD 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.