Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB) President Rifat Hisarciklioglu made headlines by appearing alongside Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and opposition leaders Deniz Baykal and Mehmet Agar at a TOBB gathering that drew some 3,000 attendees, far beyond the delegates-only crowds of previous years.
Columnist Taha Akyol argued the moment signaled a historic shift: Türkiye's entrepreneurial middle class, long in the making, has finally grown powerful enough to moderate political rivalry. Past decades of polarized leadership contributed to three military coups, while the 1990s brought continued fragmentation.
Hisarciklioglu pointed to the economic weight behind that influence, noting that Türkiye accounts for 65 percent of exports from a region of one billion people, driven by industrial output and private-sector growth rather than natural resources.
More than 1.2 million industrialists and merchants are registered with TOBB. Akyol contends that this business class recognizes excessive political conflict as a threat to profits, giving it a rational motive to encourage cooperation among leaders. He concluded that modernization in Türkiye is now driven by citizens rather than the state.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this wire report, first published in May 2006, in its own words.