The leader of Republican People’s Party (CHP) complained about the silence of Turkish Industry and Business Association (TÜSİAD) and Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB), vis-à-vis the policies of the AKP government.
"The business world keeps its mouth shot despite being influenced that much…. The business world has to be braver because it has nothing to lose. It has been already losing its everything" said Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, before a meeting organized with the business circles.
Despite CHP leader’s words and the quest for the support of the bourgeoisie, the capitalists of Turkey made more profits during the emergency state, the even more oppressive period of the ruling AKP government following the attempted coup in July 2016. Koç Holding, Turkey’s biggest "secularist" capital has increased its profit in the second quarter of the year despite the emergency rule that the capitalists seem to complain. The latest report of Koç Holding showed that the net profit of the holding as one of the biggest capitalist groups has increased to 1.42 billion TL in the second quarter of 2017. The number represents a 54.4% rate of increase compared to the first quarter of the year.
'WE DO A GOOD JOB IN DEFENDING THE WHOLE OF THE BUSINESS WORLD'
The head of the TÜSİAD has responded to criticism from CHP over "remaining silent" in the face of rights violations.
"We believe we do a good job in defending the whole of the Turkish business world. Can we do better? Yes, we can. We will take action if necessary. But if we’re talking about data, we need good analysis to back it up. We have many fundamental objectives, and one is to maintain Turkey’s strong stance in the international arena," TÜSİAD chair Erol Bilecik said in an interview on private broadcaster CNN Türk on Oct. 14.
In July, Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan had said that the state of emergency in Turkey is for capitalists' benefit. "We do declare the state of emergency to allow the businesses work smoothly", he said. Pointing out the problems of workers’ strikes for the capitalists, Erdoğan said "we do not give permission to strikes be organised by taking advantage of the state of emergency. We use the state of emergency for this purpose."
This is not the first time that CHP has been asking the support of capitalists against the AKP government. Kılıçdaroğlu marched from Turkish capital of Ankara to İstanbul to protest the implementations of Erdoğan. Inviting Turkey’s top capitalist organisations during the "justice march", Kılıçdaroğlu emphasised that they also marched for the business world’s safety of life and property.
