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DE RUEHIT #0034 0261219
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P 261219Z JAN 10
FM AMCONSUL ISTANBUL
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 9471
INFO RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASH DC PRIORITY
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHDC PRIORITY
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UNCLAS ISTANBUL 000034 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON EFIN EINT ETRD PHUM PREL TU
SUBJECT: LEADING TURKISH BUSINESS COUNCIL ELECTS NEW CHAIRWOMAN 
 
¶1. (SBU)  (Summary).  To no one's surprise, on January 19 
leading Turkish NGO TUSIAD (Turkish Industrialists and 
Businessmen's Association) elected Umit Boyner as its new 
Chair, replacing outgoing Chairwoman Arzuhan Dogan Yalcindag. 
A new board of directors was also elected.  The election 
took place during TUSIAD's 40th ordinary general assembly 
meeting, with Boyner and the new board receiving 198 votes 
out of a total of 200.  In her acceptance remarks Boyner 
alluded to Turkey's lack of a comprehensive strategy to deal 
effectively with issues like unemployment, adding that the 
lack of a healthy environment in which to discuss this is 
"not an acceptable situation."   End summary. 
 
TUSIHAD? 
-------- 
 
¶2. (U)  Boyner, whose professional portfolio includes 
responsibility for financing and investments at Boyner 
Holding, a Turkish retail empire that includes department 
stores and clothing manufacture and distribution, is the 
second consecutive woman to chair TUSIHAD, prompting quips 
that the association should change its name to TUSIHAD 
(Turkish Industrialists and Business (woman's) Association). 
The new chairwoman, born in 1963, attended high school and 
the University of Rochester in the United States, and spent 
20 years at Chemical Bank.  At Boyner Holding she developed 
Advantage, Turkey's most successful credit card brand, which 
was sold to HSBC in 2002 for USD 75 million. 
 
NEW BOARD MEMBERS 
----------------- 
 
¶3. (U)  Elected to the Board of Directors as vice-chairs 
were Haluk Dincer, Chairman of Sabanci Holding Retail Group 
and Tayfun Bayazit, Koc Holding Banking and Insurance Group 
President.  Dincer is also the Chairman of TAIK 
(Turkish-American Business Council), a quasi-governmental 
body engaged on bilateral economic relations with the United 
States.  Cansen Basaran Symes, PriceWaterhouseCoopers Turkey 
President, will be TUSIAD's new Treasurer and Zafer Ali Yavan 
will remain TUSIAD's Secretary General.  The other newly 
elected Board members were Lucien Arkas, Chairman of Arkas 
Holding; Mehmet Ali Aydinlar, Chairman of Acibadem Health 
Group; Erman Ilicak, Chairman of Ronesans Construction; Ali 
Kibar, Chairman and CEO of Kibar Holding; Volkan Vural, a 
Dogan Holding consultant and retired Ambassador, and Muharrem 
Yilmaz, Chairman of Sutas. 
 
THE NEW CHAIR'S PRIORITIES 
-------------------------- 
 
¶4. (SBU)   Boyner told TUSIAD members in Istanbul of the 
group's determination to pursue full EU membership for 
Turkey.  She emphasized TUSIAD's support for "full 
democratization," adding that Turkey no longer wants to be 
ruled by what she termed a "coup d'Qtat Constitution."  She 
also called for the annulment of the 10 percent election 
threshold, which prevents small parties in Turkey from 
sending deputies to Parliament. 
 
¶5. (SBU)  The new TUSIAD Chair stated that it is 
"unacceptable" for a G-20 member not to have a coherent 
strategy on how it will build its economic future, and added 
that TUSIAD will "emphasize the need to struggle against the 
informal economy and to develop innovative capacity."  She 
also reaffirmed her organization's traditional support for 
Turkey's EU membership, and the importance of the IMF as a 
fiscal anchor for Turkey. 
 
¶6. (SBU)  Comment.  Representing the country's most 
economically powerful players, TUSIAD is still probably 
Turkey's best known business NGO, and it remains a bastion of 
secularism with a distinctly pro-Western orientation.  Until 
a few years ago many members of Turkey's business elite felt 
that they could communicate with the AKP, and they supported 
it when they felt that it was serving well Turkey's economy. 
The AKP's ongoing tax case against Dogan Holding has had a 
somewhat chilling effect on Turkey's upper level business 
community, including within TUSIAD, where the outgoing Chair 
is the daughter of Aydin Dogan.  The somewhat combative tone 
of Boyner's first remarks as Chairwoman, however, may 
foreshadow more vocal criticism of the ruling party by the 
business elite, and sharpening public debate over GOT 
economic policy and the country's investment climate. 
 
WIENER