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UNION OF CHAMBERS OF TURKISH ENGINEERS AND ARCHITECTS (TMMOB)
ESTABLISHMENT AND THE OBJECTIVES

The Union of Chambers of Turkish Engineers and Architects (TMMOB) was established in 1954 by the Law 7303 and the Decree-Laws 66 and 85 amending of the Law 6235. TMMOB is a corporate body and a professional organization defined in the form of a public institution as stated in the Article 135 of the Constitution.

TMMOB is maintaining its activities with its 24 Chambers, 213 branches of its Chambers and 50 Provincial Coordination Councils. Approximately, graduates of 91 related academic disciplines in engineering, architecture and city planning are members of the Chambers of TMMOB.

The objectives of TMMOB listed in the Law on the Union are as follows:

  • To separate engineers and architects to professional branches, with the condition of being within the framework of laws and regulations and in accordance with the present conditions, requirements and possibilities and to also establishes Chambers for the group of engineers and architects, whose professional or working areas are similar or the same.
  • To satisfy the common needs of engineers and architects, to facilitate the professional activities and to ensure the development of the professions in accordance with the common benefits, to sustain professional discipline and ethics relations so as to ensure honesty and trust in the relations among colleagues and their relations with public. In addition, TMMOB takes all necessary initiatives and organizes activities aiming to protect interests of public and country; protect environment, historical sites, and cultural heritage; increase agricultural and industrial production; detect, save, and operate the natural resources and contribute to the technical and artistic development of the country.
  • In issues related with professions and its interests, TMMOB cooperates with official institutions and other organizations, and hence provides help and voices its proposals. It examines entire legislation, norms, scientific specifications and standart contracts and similar and relevant scientific documents related to profession and make suggestions concerning their amendment, improvement or re-application.

Parallel to the relations of its chambers with equivalent institutions, TMMOB is a member of the WFEO- World Federation of Engineering Organizations.

TMMOB aims to represent the engineers and the architects of our country in professional, economic, social, and cultural areas; protect and improve their rights and interests on the basis of the common interest of our people; ensure their professional, social and cultural development; and provide a common ground to use their professional experiences for the benefit of public. In this respect, it is crucially important to comprehend, interpret, and then inform the public on the social, political, and economic dimensions of the developments in their professional areas and in policies concerning their professions. It is also necessary to prepare suggestions concerning the formulation of such policies for the common benefit of the public and to struggle for the enforcement of them. However, the main condition of such developments is the creation of a democratic and independent Turkey in general terms and the Union is determined to maintain and activate its studies in an integrated approach for the realization of this basic aim.

The Establishment of TMMOB and the Chambers

After the enactment of the Law 6235 on TMMOB, the First General Assembly was gathered between October 18-22, 1954. This General Assembly was constituted by some of the previous delegates of organizations mentioned above. In the first meeting, the regulation of TMMOB was accepted and the establishment of the chambers mentioned below was decided: Chamber of Electrical Engineers, Chamber of Naval Arch‘s and Marine Engineers, Chamber of Marine Engineers, Chamber of Surveying Engineers, Chamber of Civil Engineers, Chamber of Chemical Engineers, Chamber of Mining Engineers, Chamber of Mechanical Engineers, Chamber of Architects, Chamber of Forestry Engineers, Chamber of Agricultural Engineers.

The chambers established after the First General Assembly and their establishment dates are as follows:

Chamber of Marine Engineers in 1960, Chamber of City Planners in 1968; Chamber of Physics Engineers, in 1970; Chamber of Metallurgical Engineers, in 1970; Chamber of Meteorological Engineers, in 1970; Chamber of Petroleum Engineers, in 1970; Chamber of Geological Engineers, in 1974; Chamber of Interior Architects, in 1976; Chamber of Geophysical Engineers, in 1986; Chamber of Environmental Engineers, in 1992; Chamber of Textile Engineers, in1992; Chamber of Landscape Architects, in 1994; Chamber of Food Engineers, in 1996 and Chamber of Computer Engineers, in 2012.

THE FUNDAMENTALS AND THE WORKING PERCEPTION

Fundamentals

TMMOB and the member Chambers of the Union;

  • are professional democratic mass organizations.
  • are democrat and patriot character
  • are for labor and people.
  • are anti-imperialist and oppose the New World Order theories, racism and reactionism.
  • Go beyond the narrow definition of politics; and regard every aspect of the life as a part of politics,
  • are for peace.
  • oppose abuses of human rights and encourage the protection of human dignity.
  • protect their organizational independence in any condition; their members and scientific studies are the only sources of their strength
  • accept that the problems of the profession and the colleagues cannot be separated from the general problems of the people and the country.
  • implement democratic centralist methods in the formation and implementation of the policies.
  • are democratic and participatory in the decision-taking processes.
  • Together with the member Chambers, TMMOB regulates the fields of profession of engineers, architects and city planners; protects the interest of both its members and people.
  • determine the current situation of industrialization and democratization and provide policies and proposals for possible solutions.
  • make efforts for the democratization of the country.
  • without any hesitation, take part in the efforts for the formation of public opinion
  • are in cooperation with the democratic mass organizations and non-governmental organizations in a democratic way.

Working Perception

TMMOB and the member chambers have a working perception on the basis of following norms:

  • TMMOB is not a Union of privileged engineers and architects, isolated form the rest of the society; on the contrary, it is a part of the society and in contact with it.
  • Instead of narrowing the field of the representative democracy and following formal procedures, TMMOB and member chambers are inclined to make efforts to strengthen mechanisms for open discussion, common production and management.
  • In contrast with the authoritarian, unchecked, and unquestionable administration methods of the rent capital groups, they encourage to strengthen democracy within organization; in which participation mechanisms other than regular elections are also implemented.
  • As they are mass organizations rather than being the ones of professionals and specialists, they perform their activities by depending on its organs.
  • In contrast with the narrow understanding of politics, they are not outside but just in the middle of the politics; do politics any time and in any condition and try to make it the dominant understanding of the entire structure.
  • Their relations with members come before relations with state and the dominant groups; they are hospitable to any cooperation and dialogue with state authorities, yet reject collaborationist approaches.
  • They reject service production, which causes the deformation of functions of the organization. On the contrary, they make regulations, constitute norm and standards that improve the quality of the services that members provide; and supervise them aiming to serve their progress.
  • The understanding, which rejects contrasting the dominant group and dominant discourse of theirs, is refused; in the contrary, they ensure the authorization of the members in decision-making and discussions.
  • They reject the understanding based on taking a part in the public hierarchy and linking all their activities to that hierarchy. Instead, they aim to sustain and improve the respectful position of the organization in the society; and determine the activities of the organization by internal dynamics and decisions.
  • In contrast with specialization tendencies, which emphasize more on the feature of being a professional organization rather than being a democratic mass organization; they insist on and enforce the understanding of being a "professional-democratic mass organization".
  • Rather than only emphasizing on meaningless hierarchic equality, they take the functionality of an institution in the society as the criteria in their relations with any institution and organization.
  • They do not exclude problems of any of their members. However, as wage earning engineers and the architects constitute the majority of their members, they strengthen their relations with both wage earners and their organizations.
  • They strengthen international relations of the organization.
  • They observe and understand the world, country and the life itself; and produce and enforce policies accordingly.