Review of History and Political Science

Character of the Pressure Group of Hometown Associations: Case of Cankiri – Turkey
Gürbüz Özdemir

Abstract
The hometown associations are the first formal structures established by the immigrants as citizens in the city. The hometown associations had realized significant buffer functions in the first periods of their establishment. Along with the differentiations of their purposes, they left out their buffer functions and gained a "pressure group" character which gather their citizens around common interests and affect the political processes in order to obtain these interests. Within this framework, an ampiric study was carried out in Cankiri City center in order to understand and put forth this characteristic of hometown associations. First of all, the conceptual framework was introduced related to the subject. Later the findings of the questionnaire, which was applied to the members of the five county hometown associations in Cankiri City center and a member of the Parliament, Provincial Council members and Municipal Councilors, were tabulated and interpreted with the aid of SPSS programme. As a result it was seen that the Hometown Associations are a potential "pressure group" through the case of Cankiri.

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