The 28 February process within the notion of sivil society and TÜSİAD's point of view

When we look at the historical process of the term ?civil society? we will see that different thinkers has atributed various meanings to the term. As of today, there is still no accurate definition on which everyone agrees. It has gained importance in Turkey after 1980 and evolved in different directions over the years. This differentiation manifested itself during post-modern coup on February 28.The process of February 28 coup has began with the founding of the Refahyol government and rised with the sequence of events such as fast-breaking dinner (iftar) at Prime Minister?s residence and Taksim mosque project. The result was the military memorandum issued by Turkish Military after National Security Council meeting at February 28, 1997. As a result of the decisions, an organisation called `Western Study Group? has been initiated which was originally secret but uncovered soon; freedom of education of the women wearing headscarwes has been taken away, working freedom of some people like army officiers has been taken away because of different excuses. In addition to these, this process had some economic repercussions. Considering the process in terms of economic interests of the country, there has been several practices adverse to the interests of the country especially through otherizing some of the capital owners.Founded in year 1971 as a non-governmental organization, TUSIAD has aimed to deliver their thoughts about certain business sectors to the governmental organizations and intended to protect the interests of its members. However, being a continuously growing institution and having backed by an ever growing economic power, TUSIAD has not restricted himself with mentioned purposes. They have periodically let different professionals prepare diverse reports and periodicals through which the opinions about the political issues in form of suggestions have been expressed. Particularly a report, which was prepared by TUSIAD in year 1997 containing recommendations on how democracy can be even more strengthened, was rejected by some of the members arguing that the suggestions did not reflect TUSIAD?s views. The report was representing TUSIAD?s conception of democracy, but we can argue that, February 28 coup prevented TUSIAD to resolutely defend the concepts of democracy defined in the report.