President Erdoğan to participate in key TÜSİAD meeting

ANKARA

Relations between Erdoğan and TÜSİAD, Turkey’s most influential business group, has always been thorny. AA Photo

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will join a meeting hosted by Turkey's top business group next week, in a possible sign of improved relations with the group.

“Our president will honor our High Consultation Council [YİK] meeting next Thursday [Sept. 18],” Haluk Dinçer, the chairman of the Turkish Industrial and Business Association (TÜSİAD), told reporters after meeting with Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu on Sept. 12.

The relationship between Erdoğan and TÜSİAD, Turkey's most influential business group, has always been thorny. Erdoğan, the former prime minister, has repeatedly urged TÜSİAD “to mind its own business” after the business group criticized his government over issues related to democracy, the rule of law and human rights.

Dinçer said they also invited Davutoğlu to their meeting, though at short notice, and stressed that the prime minister would either join next week’s meeting or the group’s General Assembly in the future.

The meeting came just a week after Davutoğlu’s government and his program received a vote of confidence from Parliament.

“Our views overwhelmingly overlap with the government's program, but we have nine months to go until the elections. We have shared our views on Turkey’s political and economic priorities with our prime minister,” Dinçer said at the time.

Dinçer stressed Turkey should accelerate its efforts to increase its democratic standards and undertake a comprehensive judicial reform that would further expand the freedoms in the country.