This booklet has been prepared in response to requests from various sections of the community for further information concerning the Touring and Automobile Association of Turkey. When was it founded, and with what aims in view? What functions does it perform at the present time? The name of the Association crops up in the most unexpected places, from customs posts to Istanbul parks and gardens, from bookshop windows to notices in an old cemetery. The aim of this brochure is to give the reader some idea of the organization and its activities. The Association is a Turkish institution founded in the 1920's on the model of similar institutions in the West. It is a national Turkish institution of the Republican period acting in a very special sphere. The revenue granted by law to the Association from the State and the community has been made to yield a very great increase in value, which has then been returned to the State and the community in the form of precedent-forming initiatives in a number of different fields such as customs, traffic, culture and art. The Turkish legal systems recognize a sort of third estate between state organizations and private enterprise in the form of associations working in the public interest. This Turkish Association is an ideal example of this type of institution. As far as its function is concerned the Association occupies a position midway between the State, which cannot afford to lavish its meager resources on fanciful luxuries, and the private individual, who indulges in such luxuries entirely for his own enjoyment. We may, indeed, describe the Association as an organization for the "production of things of beauty" for the whole community. The Association is responsible for having introduced this conception into the social life of this country, and this is the aspect of the Association's work which will earn it a secure place in the history of this country.....

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