“They must have at least three children.” Erdogan decrees the “family decade” in Turkey, in the face of a decrease in birth
Recep Erdogan, photo: Adem Altan / AFP / Profimedia
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan decreed a “family decade” on Friday to counteract the birth decline in Turkey, again criticizing “LGBT perversion”, AFP reports.
“We declare the period 2026-2035 as the decade of the family and the population,” said the head of the Turkish state at the opening of the International Family Forum in Istanbul, reports Agerpres.
“The birth rate of Turkey, for the first time in our history, has dropped to 1.48. It is a disaster. This figure is well below the critical threshold of 2.1” children, necessary for the renewal of generations, warned Erdogan citing the data provided by the National Institute of Statistics (Tüik).
“Our country is facing a great danger,” he insisted. “That's why we launched an appeal to all families to have at least three children.”
It is not the first time that the head of state, a pious Muslim and father of four children, is worried about the demographic decrease of Turkey.
He has already proclaimed 2025 the “year of the family”, promising a help for married young people by creating, in 2023, on the occasion of a presidential campaign, a “fund for family and youth”.
The decrease in birth is not related to the economic situation, says Erdogan. To blame e lgbt
President Erdogan denounced the “scourge” and “LGBT perversion” again. Homosexual and transgender people became its recurring target during the 2023 campaign.
“The fight against LGBT perversion is a struggle for freedom, dignity and to save the future of humanity,” he said, saying that “this deviant LGBT (…) has transformed into a form of fascism and oppression that rejects any other different ideology.”
According to him, “multinational companies and certain states promote this problem”, and the fact that “artists, politicians, businessmen and critical scientists LGBT leads to their lynching.”
The head of the Turkish state refused, on the other hand, to consider that the decrease of birth is related to the economic crisis facing the country, affected by a strong inflation and the devaluation of the currency, as the opposition argues.
“The decrease of the birth rate in Turkey is not due to the punctual problems of the economy. As the level of prosperity increased, our fertility rate began to decrease,” said Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
