Vakıf Müessesesinin Gelişimi Ve Mahiyeti Tarihsel Bir Değerlendirme

Abstract

The foundation is to leave an ownership or property completely and permanently for the benefit of society or mankind. When it is evaluated from past to today, the foundation is a structure in which the feeling of cooperation and solidarity becomes institutionalized. Human love and charity feelings and behaviors underlying the idea of foundation as well as defensive behaviors such as providing prestige, tax exemption and protection of private property have made it possible for people to achieve many services and investments on their own throughout their history. These feelings and behaviors also helped to create foundations. The idea of the foundation has social, economic, religious, legal and national dimensions. The first traces of the foundations, which have preserved their presence from past to present in different societies and through different application forms are found in Babylon, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greek and Central Asian Turkish societies. Nowadays, especially in the West, foundations, primarily on behalf of solving the problems posed by the capitalist market economy, fulfills important tasks with the support it gives to public services within the frame of protective and preventive measures, education, health and scientific research activities. It is known that although the foundations in Turkey are large in quantity, they cannot create public benefit in the qualitatively adequate level and charity events couldn’t be popularized since the applications made are seen as a means of providing prestige for a certain group. With this understanding, the applications of foundations towards public services in Turkey have remained in the second plan.