Especially in 1990s, because of false management applications, scandals occurred for different businesses (Enron, WorldCom etc.). Furthermore, an increase has experienced in international capital movements as a result of expansion in globalization. Increased number of investors and privatization, competition in capital markets and financial crisis caused concept of “Corporate Governance” that became more important and commonly used. The main purpose of corporate governance is to help corporate management satisfying stakeholders and shareholders’ rights and it can be defined as a management concept that considers managers, shareholders and stakeholders (government, employees, customers etc.) as well as profit maximization and distribution.

The Corporate Governance Principles which has issued in 1999 by Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), was adopted to Turkey by Capital Markets Board of Turkey (CMB) and was established in July 2003. It is expected that publicly held companies which are active in private and public sector may implement these Principles. The implementation of the Principles is optional. As “comply or explain” approach is adopted, they should explain why they do not comply. CMB determined that minimum explanation about corporate governance principles should be included in the annual report of 2004.

In this study, 40 Turkish firms that issued corporate governance principles compliance report have been examined. We determined the main issues of reporting and we established the degree of corporate governance principles application of Turkish firms. We concluded our study by making proposal.