ABSTRACT
Privatization appeared on the economic agenda in Turkey with the coming to power of the Ozal government in November 1983. The new government believed that the state should not engage in commercial activities where the private sector could move efficiently. The state's role should ideally be confined to developing an infrastructure, primarily in energy, transportation, and telecommunications, while maintaining responsibility in public sector areas such as education, health care, and national defence. The government envisioned the privatization of the state economic enterprises (SEEs) as an important part of the shrinking of the state sector in relation to the private sector. This view reflects an important policy shift in Turkey where the state took an active part in the industrialization efforts of the country by founding major enterprises in all areas of economic activity since its foundation as a modern and secular republic in 1923.
