OEB GENERAL ASSEMBLY

His Excellency Mr President,
President of the Assembly,
Distinguished Guests,
Dear Colleagues,
22 May 2008

 On special occasions of organizations with which businessmen are affiliated, apart from the politicians invited, the speakers from business associations generally talk about the problems of the private sector, their recommendations in this respect and opportunities around the world. In other words, the topic of their speeches is economy.

The situation in our country, in which there are two separate ‘worlds’ due to the everlasting political problem, is a bit different.
It does not matter how big you are as a businessman, everything ends up in politics.
Politics is part both of your personal and professional lives, as if you are convicted to live with it... you inherited it from your father and you are bound to carry this burden specific to your country on your shoulders.

Although it is generally said that ‘this situation is the same for businessmen of both sides of our country’, we, as the businessmen in “quotation marks” of the side in “quotation marks”, experience this situation in a different way.  
From a humoristic approach, I think that what we go through resembles to the protagonist’s life of famous Turkish novelist Aziz Nesin. The title of the novel in Turkish is Yaşar Ne Yaşar Ne Yaşamaz, which can literally be translated as Yaşar is neither alive nor dead. Yaşar is a male name in Turkish. It means “to be alive, to live”. Yaşamaz means “dead”.
Yaşar, was an unlucky person registered in the records as a dead person before he was even born due to the mistake made by a civil servant. At first, this constituted no problems as his life was of no concern to anyone. Problems began at a later stage.. Yaşar was considered to be alive when it comes to military service, tax issues etc. but when it comes to government services, he was considered to be ‘dead’.  In fact, it is a difficult situation, to exist but at the same time to be considered “not to exist” on paper. Despite this, life goes on and a remedy exists for every situation.. and eventually, Yaşar will certainly find a way to survive in this situation..

It is a fact that our business life is difficult.  We had to put more energy but we managed to survive. Actually, this situation provided us with a very important know-how that would be beneficial for all of us in the future.

Also, we managed something else. We worked hard, leaving our businesses/jobs aside, to change our country’s and important powers’ policies.
Recently, we descended on the streets hand in hand with trade unions and other civil society organizations within the framework of a joint vision in which we contributed. This could be considered the first of its kind for the business circles.
And we succeeded.. Today, when we look back, we remember every minute of those days with a smile on our faces.

However, I have to admit that I am not as excited as I was four years ago. But today, we have more reasons to be hopeful than we had four years ago...

Although we know that our communities are regarded as the parties to our problem, the permanent solution can only be achieved by integrating all the concerned parties into this process and we are going to join our efforts to work for a solution that we believe each party involved needs. 

That is why; we are carrying out the preparations for the meetings to be organized with the participation of the leaders of your valuable organization OEB, SEV (Association of Industrialists of Greece) and TUSİAD (Turkish Industrialists and Businessmen Association).

As businessmen, we will continue to make contributions along with practical approaches.
The process ahead of us may be a little frustrating but we have to be courageous in the steps we take and face our pasts.

As businessmen, we conclude many agreements in our professional lives and we are aware of these facts:

• Where both parties leave the table without being really happy, then the agreements  on the table are generally good;
• Where both parties leave the table smiling, then the agreements on the table are perfect;
• Where one party leaves the table with a sullen face and the other leaves with a smiling face, that means the agreements on the table are stillborn.

We must bear in mind that, each issue that leaders try to settle today, on the table is the result of wrong policies pursued by parties during the lost years and each day passing by makes them even more complicated. This time, the opportunity should not be missed!
We hope that this time, the opportunity will not be missed.  However, even though I am hesitant to say, if we cannot succeed in taking this opportunity now, we will find nobody who will wait for the next one.  We will only be satisfied that this worst of all, the uncertainty about our future, will be no more.

Now, I would like to leave politics, which makes us all tired, and should not even be part of our business, aside and bring an opportunity to your attention.
When this problem we have dealt with for years to date comes to an end, we could materialize projects, which would benefit both our country as well as ourselves-businessmen, if we join our energy to emerge and know-how we have acquired over time in a productive way.

His Excellency Mr President, Distinguished Guests, Dear Colleagues,
Today, we have young businessmen, including my son and members among us. I would like to end my words by saying something to them before you:
I said at the beginning of my speech that we inherited this problem from our fathers, but we will do our best not to hand this problem as it is today down to you and I hope that this time we will succeed it.

I would like to greet you all with my sincere wishes..
Teşekkür ederim.
Efgaristo.
Thank you.

Metin Yalcin
Chairman