Turkey in microcosm

I never thought I would ever be interested in Ankara Chamber of Commerce (ATO) presidential elections. But I became interested with the recent vote. 

It started while I was watching TV when it was reported as breaking news that Osman Gökçek was running for the presidency of the ATO. I was wondering why the son of Ankara Mayor Melih Gökçek becoming a candidate to head the ATO should be breaking news, so I Googled the matter and went deeper into the archives. 

What I found was a "micro Turkey" picture, one that contained a power war similar to what is going on in all minor or major institutions of the country, a photo that gets dirtier as you look. 

The ATO is second after the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce. It is a huge structure with 150,000 members. It has a wide bureaucratic network with an executive committee, assembly, commissions, support units, external services, etc. 

I could not find details of the ATO's budget, but the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce's budget for 2016 was 260 million Turkish Liras. Money keeps coming in… 

According to its activity reports, it is using the collected money to support its members, create opportunities for entrepreneurs, provide training, and organize seminars. It also makes charity donations, having donated 15 million liras to the Turkish police and 1.5 million liras to the flood-stricken Pakistan, among others. 

Going back to the ATO election, there was a very tense ATO assembly meeting on Aug. 30, during which Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB) head Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu said "the entire administration should resign." The target of Hisarcıklıoğlu's accusation was the Gülen movement, or the Fethullahist Terror Organization (FETÖ). He was basically saying, ...