This Charter sets out the name, purpose, governance structure and operating rules of the Kybele Atasever World Business Council (KADİK).
1. Name of the Organisation
The organisation's full name is the Kybele Atasever World Business Council, referred to for short as the Council, Kybele, or KADİK.
2. Headquarters and Branches
The Council is headquartered in London. Branches, representative offices, and new bodies, institutions and enterprises may be opened worldwide as directed by the Board of Directors.
3. Purpose
Alongside establishing a more democratic business world, the Council works for the unity, wellbeing, success, revival, advancement, continuity and other stated aims of Turkish business people around the world. As a secular, democratic organisation, its line may not be altered by any General Assembly. Depending on the conjuncture, its principal subjects will include the areas set out below.
4. Core Policy Areas
(1) Foreign Policy and the European Union: EU-Turkey relations and the democratisation of the business world; relations with European social democrats; relations with neighbouring countries; multilateral diplomacy under the principle of peace at home, peace in the world. (2) Defence, Security and NATO: NATO and European security; organising for peace and supporting - and where necessary leading - the business world's efforts toward peace; work toward ending wars and building lasting peace. (3) Migration, Refugees and Integration Policy: global migration relations; peaceful solutions to refugee policy, including opening pathways to entrepreneurship; contributions to integration processes and to society's welfare and fair distribution; combating irregular migration and human trafficking. (4) Social Democracy and the Social State in Europe and the World: the social state and the fair distribution of income, welfare and knowledge, and the prevention of poverty; income distribution and the business world's role in it; working life and democracy; trade unions and their role in working life; welfare-state models and balanced income distribution.
5. Further Focus Areas
Further standing subjects include the digital economy; climate, environment and energy; democracy, the rule of law and human rights, including judicial independence and the protection of fundamental rights and democratic institutions; diaspora policy, including the concerns and participation of the Turkish community in Europe and comparative diaspora policy; local government and European urban policy; digitalisation, artificial intelligence and technology policy; and any other field the Council identifies as necessary.
6. Working Groups and Measuring Success
The Council maintains a flexible structure that may open and close subject areas and working groups as needed. The Council's success must be measured not by the number of meetings it holds but by the research, policy notes, comparative analyses and actionable policy proposals it produces. Each working group must deliver at least a few policy reports per year, to be presented to the relevant bodies and to the public.
7. Global Organisational Structure
The Council brings Economy, Industry and Green Transition together into a coordination and policy-making mechanism with its own democratic representative institutions, and its bodies organise on a world scale in compliance with each country's law. In every country, the division of labour includes a Countries' Conference, an International Executive Committee, coordination with the Presidency/Headquarters, policy and strategy commissions, women's and youth structures, and horizontal organisation and collective work. Continental or regional coordination bodies may be established where needed.
8. Country Representation and Delegates
Every country must be enabled to send Council representatives and delegates, preserving both democratic equality and organisational weight in representation. Where needed for internal democracy, the Board of Directors may hold digital elections and voting under notarial supervision. A base number of delegates is set for each country, with additional delegates added according to registered membership; a ceiling on delegate numbers may be introduced for very large countries, and women's and youth representation is separately guaranteed. Membership numbers are calculated from verified, regularly updated central membership records. Candidates for certain offices within the organisation may be required to meet role-specific criteria - such as language proficiency, international political experience, representational ability and relevant expertise - provided such criteria rest on clear, pre-established standards rather than subjective conditions that restrict the right to stand for election.
9. Country Federations
A multi-layered structure may be formed consisting of a Country Federation, organisations within the country, and city or regional organisations. Federating strengthens nationwide political coordination while preserving local organisations' local activities. The duties of country federations include nationwide political coordination; relations with fraternal social-democratic circles, trade unions and civil-society organisations; conveying the organisation's politics and the countries' agenda; coordinating nationwide meetings and campaigns; and sending country representatives and delegates. Where only one or two groups exist in a country, a direct-unity model may continue instead, so that every country is not forced into the same organisational mould but a graduated, flexible structure is built according to each country's organisational size and needs.
10. Use of the KYBELE Name
Where the KYBELE name cannot be used under a country's legislation or relevant law, an alternative name reflecting the international social-democratic identity may be used instead.
11. External Relations and Partnerships
The Council must build relations with likeminded local parties and the business world, with municipalities, trade unions, European left parties, migrant entrepreneurs and their organisations, human-rights organisations, women's and youth organisations, academic circles, and democratic civil-society organisations, and country organisations may cooperate with one another in an advocacy capacity. Council organisations should strive to become active actors in the political life of the countries in which they are based, and international agreements will facilitate such work. The Council also supports and builds scientific contribution as an institute, and gives due attention to education, instruction and the management of information.
12. The General Assembly
The Council's highest authority is the General Assembly (Kurultay). Except where unavoidable, the General Assembly convenes without delegates, with the participation of all members, and elects one-third of the Board of Directors; for this reason the General Assembly is held once every two years. The Presidency prepares the date and change schedule and communicates it to the electorate no later than three months before the General Assembly.
13. Candidates and Elections
Candidates standing for election have their qualifications confirmed by the Board of Directors and are announced together with their CVs and asset declarations. Candidates may not run election campaigns or incur campaign expenditure. The necessary information is conveyed to the electorate by the relevant Election Board, which must ensure equality among candidates.
14. Renewal of the Board and Presiding Board
The General Assembly elects the Board of Directors and the Presiding Board; one-third of the Board of Directors and of the Presiding Board is renewed once a year. The new Board convenes the following day to allocate responsibilities. The President and Vice-President are ex officio spokespeople, and the duties and powers of the President and of officers are determined by a two-thirds majority.
15. Quorum and Convening
The General Assembly begins its work with an absolute majority of those eligible to vote; in digital elections, applying to vote in advance is mandatory. If the required majority is not reached at the first meeting, a second meeting is opened one week later with the members present. The General Assembly also convenes within 45 days of a decision of the Board of Directors or the Supervisory Board, or upon the written request of one-third of the members to the Presidency.
16. The Presiding Board and Its Decisions
The number of Presiding Board members is set at each General Assembly for the following General Assembly. Following the General Assembly's decision, the Presiding Board acts as the organiser of the election proceedings and functions similarly to a Board of Honour. To conduct the General Assembly's proceedings, it elects, from among its members or, where necessary, from outside, a President, a Deputy President and a Secretary. Decisions are taken by majority of those present, and the matters discussed and decisions taken are recorded in minutes and signed by the six members of the Election Board.
17. Voting Rights and Procedure
Every member of the General Assembly, including members of the Election Board, has an individual right to vote. A member unable to attend may send a proxy; no one person may hold more than one proxy. Voting may be secret or open ballot, as decided by the General Assembly. The agenda is set by the Presiding Board and the Board of Directors at their meeting, and the General Assembly must conclude with at least one scientific declaration of its results. Voting alone, by preference only, may not be the sole method used, and list-based elections are prohibited; the General Assembly may make whatever changes it wishes to the agenda of any of its meetings.
18. Powers and Duties of the General Assembly
The General Assembly's powers and duties are: to elect one-third of the members of the Board of Directors and of the Supervisory Board; to amend the Charter and agreements where two-thirds of the full founding membership is achieved; to examine the reports of the Board of Directors and the Supervisory Board together with the balance sheet and profit-and-loss accounts, and to discharge the Board of Directors; to make changes and additions to the meeting agenda where it deems necessary; and to take binding or advisory decisions on the Council's functioning and ongoing work.
19. The Board of Directors
The Council is administered through its Board of Directors, which has seven members in total. A seat does not fall vacant except for reasons such as ill health or resignation, and in the event of a conflict the Presiding Board intervenes to resolve the matter. Usefulness to the Council, multilingualism, merit and competence are the primary qualities sought in members and in any further Board members elected.
20. Operations of the Board of Directors
The Board of Directors may convene by absolute majority or online, and decisions may also be taken in writing where necessary. Meetings are always recorded in minutes, and decisions are binding.
21. Representation
The Council is represented by two persons acting jointly: the President or the Vice-President together with one member. Day-to-day management is determined by the Board of Directors.
22. Powers and Duties of the Board of Directors
The powers and duties of the Board of Directors are: (a) to regulate and carry out every decision and condition relating to the Council's work; and (b) to acquire, hold and dispose of - whether by purchase, lease, gift, bequest or any other disposition upon death - every kind of movable and immovable property, monies, rights of pecuniary value, shares, receivables and similar valuable instruments, and rights of usufruct, habitation and bare ownership, on behalf of the Council, to accept releases arising from such acquisitions, to conduct any other private or official business, to borrow, and to establish, accept and discharge mortgages in the Council's favour or against it. Each outgoing Board hands over its duties with a neutral budget, and where debt has accumulated, the Board members who signed the relevant decision are jointly liable.
23. Supervisory Board
The Supervisory Board consists of auditors. Where a seat falls vacant for reasons of health or resignation, the General Assembly elects the vacant auditor's replacement. The Supervisory Board audits every activity of the Council, may call the General Assembly into session where necessary, and submits a report for annual publication at the end of each activity year.
24. Finance
The Council's initial financial assets are determined by the provisional Board of Directors. Its income consists of: (a) grants, donations, membership dues, operating income and similar; (b) movable and immovable property and monies left or transferred by testamentary disposition; and (c) income from bodies established by the Council and other income - all of which is spent entirely in furtherance of the Council's purpose.
25. Amendments to the Charter
The Charter and its decisions may be amended on the proposal of at least five members of the Board of Directors or the General Assembly and by a two-thirds majority decision of the General Assembly.
26. Dissolution and Liquidation
In the event of dissolution and liquidation, the Council's movable and immovable property together with its rights and receivables are donated to a secular, democratic organisation.