Abstract:

This paper analyzes the political discourse of the MÜSİAD under different political contexts since the establishment of the association. The analysis consists of three periods: (I) the formation years of MÜSİAD between 1990 and 1998; (II) the aftermath of the 28 February 1997 military intervention that covers the period from 1998 to the end of the 2000s; and (III) the third and fourth terms of Islamically-oriented Justice and Development Party (JDP) in the office as well as the first term of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as the president that corresponds to the period after 2011. By a critical discourse analysis focusing on MÜSİAD’s publications—namely, the association’s periodical Çerçeve, its annual reports on Turkish economy and special reports, booklets, and books MÜSİAD published concerning specific themes such as privatization, foreign trade, constitutional reform and the EU, this paper argues that MÜSİAD’s claim of being independent of the state rooted in the clash between secular state policies and Islamic identity of the association rather than a bourgeois suspicion towards the state as seen in the Western European countries. While MÜSİAD reformulated its erstwhile critique after February 28 around democratic values, the claims of independence and critical tone of MÜSİAD’s discourse has waned after 2010 since an Islamically-oriented political party started to dominate the political system in Turkey and ended the ideological clash between the state and MÜSİAD.

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