Oyak (Ordu Yardimlasma Kurumu)

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OYAK (ORDU YARDIMLASMA KURUMU)

turkish military pension program that became a public conglomerate with political power.

Ordu Yardimlasma Kurumu Army Mutual Assistance Association was founded in Turkey in 1961 as a pension program to protect career military officers from inflation, but it soon became Turkey's largest and most diversified public conglomerate. By 1984, OYAK's assets totaled more than US$300 million, with heavy investments in the automotive, electronics, construction, and food-processing industries, among others.

Since the late 1960s, OYAK's economic clout has enhanced its political influence. It is an example of the Turkish state's use of professional associations and social-insurance programs to implement economic policy. OYAK is nominally attached to the ministry of defense but is run autonomously by civilians and technocrats.


Bibliography


Bianchi, Robert. Interest Groups and Political Development in Turkey. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1984.

elizabeth thompson