Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

The joint consultation meeting which took place at the Erzurum Chamber of Commerce and Industry was attended by TOBB President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu, Municipality Deputy President Eyüp Tavlaşoğlu, ETSO President Lütfü Yücelik, and ETB (Erzurum Commodity Exchange) President Hakkı Hınıslıoğlu.

TOBB President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that the biggest problem today is the protests resulting from the events of Gezi Park. Stating that everyone should be able to express their thoughts, Hisarcıklıoğlu reminded those present that people have the right to protest in democracy. Also stating that protests must be made within the rule of law, M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “The right to protest must be exercised within the rule of law. These must be done according to the laws and legislations in effect. Otherwise, you get chaos. Chaos hurts us both nationally and internationally. Traders, industrialists and shop owners suffer the worst. As a result workers and farmers suffer. This means the whole country suffers. We say that the streets need to be evacuated. They should be evacuated because we have much work to do. I would like to stress one point in particular. There are those hoping to exploit Turkey’s social fault lines. We declare that this should not be allowed. We must be more in touch with each other in the spirit of solidarity each day. That is why we’ve suffered so much. Both nationally and internationally. All of our members have said ‘enough’. Everyone’s had their say. We will be publishing full page adverts tomorrow declaring our views on the matter. We are working with the other institutions of the business community; the workers, public servants, shopkeepers and agriculture chambers as well as NGOs like banking unions. I hope that attention is paid to our words tomorrow.”

- Coming together under common sense

Emphasizing unity and solidarity, Hisarcıklıoğlu said that success and prosperity is only possible through these values. Stating that everyone being of one mind is the natural way of things, the TOBB President said that what is important is the meeting of different ideas under common sense.

Providing information regarding how far TOBB has come, Hisarcıklıoğlu made assessments regarding the activities they’ve undertaken to date. Reporting that they focused on improving the physical facilities of the chambers and exchanges when he first came into office, Hisarcıklıoğlu said that 233 chambers and exchanges have gotten their new service building while 132 chamber and exchange buildings have been modernized.

Talking about the accredited chambers system, Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that among the ‘5 star chambers’ are the Erzurum TSO and the Erzurum Commodity Exchange. Hisarcıklıoğlu reported that 131 chambers and exchanges are accredited at the moment.
ETSO President Lütfü Yücelik, touching on the local economic issues of the city, requested Hisarcıklıoğlu support in actualizing their plans for a university in Erzurum.

After the event, Yücelik presented Hisarcıklıoğlu with a samovar.
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