User:Colindiamond/TUSIAD

Political Context
TÜSIAD is considered Turkey's secular, pro-Westernization business organization (For its pious Muslim counterpart see MÜSIAD). In the early 2000s, TÜSIAD coordinated heavily with the newly elected AKP majority, with the shared aim of joining the European Union. However, as the EU accession process began to deteriorate in 2006, then-Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's administration reversed course away from the EU, driving a wedge between the two. Since then, TÜSIAD 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 general public.

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 TÜSIAD 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.