The role of civil society organizations in the process of Turkey-European Union relations: The case of TOBB

Since its foundation, Turkey has seen the West as its target and has identified the concept of reaching the level of modern civilisations with the expression 'to be included in Western civilisation'. In order to achieve this goal, Turkey thought that it was approaching or could approach this goal by becoming a member of the OECD, the Council of Europe and NATO, which it regarded as important institutions of Western Civilisation. Founded in 1957 with the Treaty of Rome, the European Economic Community (now known as the European Union) was a formation that Turkey wanted to join, taking into account its advantages in the economic field with the realities of that period and its advantages in the political sense in the later process, and applied for association to the Community on 31 July 1959. Since then, it has been continuing its efforts to join this organisation. There are political, economic, legal and social competences to be met in this ongoing process. At this point, it is a fact that NGOs, which can be described as non-state organisations as well as the state, play important roles. In this study, the perspective of the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB), one of the largest non-governmental organisations of the Turkish business world, on this process and its contributions to this process are tried to be examined.