The Agricultural Credit Cooperatives of Turkey Serbia which was Ottoman territory at the time), with the establishment of “Homeland Funds” (“Memleket Sandıkları”) in 1863 and it gained pace with the foundation of the Republic of Turkey as new laws on cooperatives were enacted. The ACC with its modern nomenclature and structure was established based on law number 2836 which was passed in 1935. The ACC’s foundation was supported by the first president of the Republic of Turkey Kemal Atatürk who was also the first member of the cooperative in Silifke – Tekir Çiftliği. Due to the enforcement of law number 1581 on Agricultural Credit Cooperatives and
Accession of Turkey to the European Union European Parliament, equal to Germany's. If Turkey were to join the European Union, Istanbul would become the most populous metropolis in the EU. Cyprus was divided when, on 20 July 1974, Turkey invaded and occupied a third of the island in response to an Athens-engineered coup aimed at annexing Cyprus to Greece. Since then, Turkey has refused to acknowledge the Republic of Cyprus (an EU member since 2004) as the sole authority on the island, and recognizes the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus since its establishment in 1983. The Turkish invasion in 1974 and the resulting movement of refugees