Tranformation of Environmental Organizations in Turkey: Central Professional Lobby Organizations and Local Voluntary Protesters

This study aims to analyse the transformation of environmental organizations in Turkey in last 30 years. This study analyses the diversity and transformation of environmental organizations in last thirty years with the classification tool of Diani and Donati (1999) that is used for Western European countries. The classification is based on political affinity and resource efficacy and has four categories as ideal types; Public Interest Group, Participative Pressure Group, Professional Protest Organization and Participatory Protest Organization. Within the Critical Social Science approach, literature on environmental organizations in Turkey was reviewed. Then, ten interviews were realized with professional or volunteer environmentalists worked for NGOs more than five years. Lastly, content analysis of internet sites of five leading environmental NGOs in Turkey was realized. This research shows the strong tendency of the transformation of Participative Pressure Groups of 1980- 2000 period into Public Interest Lobbies in national scale and Participative Protest Groups in local after 2000. Greenpeace Mediterranean presents an exception as the only Professional Protest Organization in Turkey. This transformation is parallel with neoliberal development policies generated in the adaptation process of Turkey to global capitalism.