The state plays a major role in every aspect of information society issues in Turkey. The ministries, directorate generals under ministries, various governmental administrations, institutions and enterprises are key players. On the other hand, Turkey has a dynamic and fast growing private sector. NGOs and business associations have an increasing role.

Ministry of Transportation and its two directorate generals, Directorate General of Communications and Directorate General of Wireless Communications, are key organisations in telecommunication issues. Other major directorate generals of Ministry of Transportation include State Railways Administration, State Highways Administration, Post Administration, and State Airports Administration.

The new telecom law enacted in the year 2000 established and independent regulatory body on communications. Appointments were made and the body became operational in the same year.

Other ministries involved in major information society projects include Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Ministry of Education.

Turk Telekom is the sole owner and operator of the conventional telephony, satellite, and submarine communication infrastructure in Turkey. The two GSM operators (private companies) are Turkcell and Telsim. A third license was granted to the Isbank-Telecom Italia consortium (Is-Tim) in the year 2000. VSAT service providers are TURVSAT and Verinet.

State Planning Organisation (DPT), Higher Education Council (YOK), Higher Council of Radio and Television (RTUK), SME Development Administration (KOSGEB), Competition Council, Undersecretariat of Foreign Trade (DTM), Undersecretariat of Treasury (HM), Privatisation Administration (OIB), Central Bank of Turkey (TCMB) are other key state organisations.

Leading universities include Bogazici University, Middle East Technical University, Istanbul Technical University and Bilkent University. Most of the recently established private universities have computer engineering departments. TUBITAK is the national science and technology council responsible for science and technology policies and support. It also has some major research institutes.

Municipalities of metropolitan cities such as Istanbul and Ankara and their utility administrations have major information society related projects.

Leading NGOs and associations involved in information society issues, include Turkish Informatics Association (TBD), Turkish Informatics Foundation (TBV), Association of Turkish Informatics Industrialists (TUSIAD), Association of Turkish Industrialists and Businessmen (TUSIAD), Association of Turkish Electronics Industrialists (TESID). Also important are chambers of commerce and industry and associations such as Union of Chambers (TOBB), Union of Banks (BB), chambers and unions of professionals, Labor unions and their confederations. Several new associations were established in the recent years in the ICT sector. These include Association of ISPs TISSAD, Association of Software Companies YASAD, and Internet Association INETD.

Internet Higher Council, Kamunet Higher Council and Electronic Commerce Coordination Committee are semi formal advisory bodies.

All leading international IT vendors have their local companies or representatives in Turkey. Some local Turkish companies have a leading role in the IT market in hardware, software, communications and Internet services. Among these are the leading PC manufacturer Escort, the leading ISP Superonline, and the leading accounting software vendor Logo.

2.1 Government and administration

During the ESIS II period, a new general manager was appointed in Turk Telekom. Fatih Mehmet Yurdal now holds this position. Other key appointments in governmental positions in this period include the following: Akin Izmirlioglu has been appointed as the Undersecretary of State Planning Organisation. Sefik Yildiz has been appointed as the President of State Statistics Institute.

The general manager of Turk Telekom Fatih Mehmet Yurdal was appointed as the president of the newly established telecom regulation authority. Other members include the director general of wireless communications of the Ministry of Transportation, director of standards of the directorate general of wireless communications of the Ministry of Transportation, a representative from the academia and a representative from the State Planning Organisation.

Appointments were make for the board members of the Telecommunication Council, the recently established independent telecommunications regulation authority.

Ibrahim Hakki Alpturk replaced Fatih Mehmet Yurdal as the new general manager of Turk Telekom.

Two key persons in the ministry of transportation resigned, Hayrettin Soytas, Director General of Communications, and Sureyya Yucel Ozden, the Undersecretary.

2.2 NGO’s and other organisations (excluding private sector)

The chairman of the board of the Turkish Informatics Association has resigned and Inci Pekgulec Apaydin was elected as the new chairperson of the board.

The Open Systems Association TRUUG transformed itself into the Internet Association (INETD-TR for short). Internet is a hot topic in the country and an association was needed in this area. The Open Systems Association, on the other hand, gradually became active in this area recently. The new association INETD-TR started organising Internet days. INETD-TR is lead by Mustafa Akgul from Bilkent University, who is a leading name in Internet in Turkey.

Burak Cedetas, general manager of Prizmanet, an ISP, became the president of the Turkish ISP Association TISSAD.

Behcet Envarli was reelected as the Chairman of the Board of IT Companies Association TUBISAD.

2.3 Private sector

Key appointments made in the private sector included the following: The General Manager of the leading ISP Superonline, Babur Ozden, has transferred to Dogus Group as the coordinator of investment operations of the Group in Internet and telecom area. Several other key persons of Superonline including an assistant general followed Babur Ozden to transfer to Dogus Group. Mehmet Ozkan has been appointed as the general manager of DigiTurk, the newly established joint venture of Cukurova group and Dogan Group in digital TV broadcasting.

The general manager of Intel Turkey took a position in Intel USA as the assistant of the Vice President responsible for Global Sales and Marketing.

The general manager of Microsoft Turkey Sureyya Ciliv took a position in Microsoft USA and Haluk Maga was appointed as the new general manager.

Other appointments / changes in positions included the following: Mehmet Sahin, General Manager of Karma, a leading distributer of computer parts and equipment, has resigned. Ismail Komac has been appointed as the technical coordinator in Meteksan, an Ankara based major IT consumables production company. I-Bimsa, the IT company of the leading industrial group Sabanci, has made a change in its organisational structure by separating operations and services function and sales and marketing function. Gamze Aydin Celenk has been appointed as the new general manager of SAS Institute Turkey. Hamza Kosma has been appointed as the IT coordinator of Zorlu Holding, a major group in the textile industry.

Lutfi Yenel, general manager of Alcatel Teletas was appointed as the vice president of Alcatel International. Izi Kohen was replaced by Hakan Kocer as the general manager of Arena, the leading OEM parts distributor. Izi Kohen became the chairman of the board of Arena. Mr Caner Oner, General Manager of NCR, retired and started his own company in this period. Talcin Orhon was appointed as the new general manager of NCR.

Interpro, the organiser of the yearly IT event Bilisim series of fairs and conferences and the publisher of the leading IT weekly BTHaber, and Deutsche Messe, the organiser of CeBit, established a joint venture company called HIFAS in Turkey to organise Bilisim series starting with the year 2000 event. Mr. Erdem Ozel was appointed as the general manager of the company. Bilisim series of fairs and conferences is the biggest yearly IT event in Turkey, attracting over 100 thousands fair visitors and over 500 conference participants. Turkish Informatics Association (TBD), Turkish Informatics foundation (TBV) and Association of Informatics Industrialists of Turkey (TUBISAD) are the other partners of the Bilisim series.

Major industrial, financial and media groups are entering into the Internet market as ISPs or otherwise. Among them are major banks including Garanti Bankasi and Is Bankasi, major industrial groups including Sabanci Group (a Fortune 500 group), Koc Group Group (a Fortune 500 group) and Dogus Group, major media groups including Star Group, Sabah Group and Dogan Group. An example of such an entry is the acquisition of Turk Nokta Net, the leading independent ISP, by the Sabanci Group.

Some industrial groups who invested in banking, media and Internet recently became the leading groups in Turkey. The best example of this is Cukurova Group. This group now owns two major national banks Yapi Kredi Bank and Pamukbank together with other companies in related financial areas such as insurance, leasing and factoring, many ICT companies including Turkcell, the leading mobile operator, Superonline, the leading ISP, KVK, the leading mobile phone sets distributor, Bilpa, a major software company in banking, and several foreign mobile operators such as Azercell (Azerbaijan), Geocell (Georgia), KKTCell (Northern cyprus), Kcell (Kazakhstan), several national newspapers, national TVs and other media companies including Sabah (newspaper), Yeni Asir (newspaper), Yeni Binyil (newspaper), ATV (TV), Kanal 6 (TV), Yeni TV (TV), Media (TV production), Eksen (TV production), and Digital Platform (digital TV).

Several IT companies were quoted in Istanbul Stock Exchange in 2000 including Netas, a communication equipment vendor, Alcatel, Aselsan, a military electronics company, Pirelli Cable, Logo, a leading software company, Escort, a leading PC manufacturing company, and Turkcell, the largest GSM operator. Istanbul Stock Exchange established a separate index called the technology index for high tech companies. Turkcell was also quoted in NYSE in this period. Several IT companies applied for quotation in Istanbul Stock exchange in 2000 including Gen-Pa (mobile phone sets distributor), Link (a software company), Arena (PC and peripheral distributor), Index (integrated solutions provider), Porcan (barcode equipments supplier), Karel (mobile phone sets distributor) and Datateknik (PC and peripheral distributor). Companies that are planning to apply for quotation in 2001 include KVK (leading mobile phone sets distributor), Superonline (leading ISP), Ixir (leading ISP), Likom (software company) and Vestelnet (leading ISP).

The local distributor company of Apple, Bilkom was acquired by the leading industrial group Koc group.