Turk business group meets speaker of parliament

Arzuhan Dogan Yalcindag, the Chairwoman of Turkish Industrialists' and Businessmen's Association (TUSIAD) visited Koksal Toptan in Ankara. "What seemed like an atmosphere of escalating tension would hopefully give way to common sense and an exit out of the current situation would be found,"  Toptan was quoted as saying the meeting. Â

Yalcindag recalled that they got together with Civil Organizations under the initiative and noted that they had duties in this process. "Of course, a great duty falls on our parliament speaker. That's why we are here: to discuss these issues," she was quoted as saying by the Anatolian Agency.

Political tension has been high since a leftist and anti-AKP columnist, a party leader and a former rector were taken into custody on Friday with suspected links to an illegal gang which was accused of paving the way to a military coup following Turkey's chief prosecutor filed a lawsuit against the governing AKP demanding its closure on March 14. Observers say recent developments embark a new episode in the secularists' and Islamist groups' struggle for power.

Toptan said a call for common sense has been coming from all segments of the society since the beginning of the week. He said TUSIAD and the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB) were spearheading this and pointed out that these calls had created positive repercussions in the speeches delivered by political leaders on Tuesday.

Toptan added it was natural for certain problems to occur in rapidly growing countries like Turkey but stressed that it was important to seek ways out and solve the problems.

TUSIAD has expressed its concerns on Monday over the recent developments and warned there could be a polarization in the public that could gradually result in a "regime crisis". Seven of Turkey’s leading non-governmental organizations issued a statement on Wednesday calling for a scaling back of political tensions, warning that the nation is at risk of being polarized. The NGOs, who represent almost 50 million people, called everybody "to take a step back from their recent positions".