Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan raised the alarm for the drop in the national birth rate and decline of family values in the country, while he warned that measures are taken against “deviant movements like LGBTI.”
Speaking at the Family and Culture-Art Symposium held at the Bestepe National Library in Ankara, Erdogan said the country was “currently experiencing a disaster,” as the fertility rate last year was measured at 1.48, according to Haberler.
Explaining that the rate is well below the 2.10 band, which is the level required for the population to renew itself, the Turkish President added that “alarm bells are ringing very loudly for our future.” Data showed that isolation appeared to play a role in low fertility rates, as Turkey’s average household size, decreased from four in 2008 to three in 2024, while the rate of single-person households increased from fifteen to twenty percent over the last eight years.
Turkey’s fertility strategy includes measures against the LGBT movement
Turkey’s fertility strategy is multidimensional, Erdogan told the audience. Adopting an unfamiliar feminist narrative, which he based on statistics, the Turkish President clarified that women’s presence in the labor market has a limited effect on fertility rates and acknowledged that, instead, the problem lies in the fact that women often do not receive the necessary support from their husbands in raising children.
On the other hand, he blamed “neoliberal culture and technology,” as well as “cultural imperialism and digital siege” for their impact on the family institution. Echoing previous anti-LGBTI statements he made in 2023 and 2021, he said that his administration is taking “all necessary measures against the impositions of gender neutrality and deviant movements like LGBT.”
Erdogan has always maintained that the LGBTI movement poses a threat to family as a basic pillar of the Turkish nation.
Erdogan’s anti-LGBTI stance
Kaos GL, a Turkish news portal for LGBTI+, reported that earlier in November Erdogan targeted LGBTI+ people, referring to the “LGBT perversion” and “new generation attacks.”
“During the Family Year, the most important issue for us is to preserve the function of the family in Türkiye. For this reason, we will never allow perversions like LGBT. A nation with a strong family institution gains strength,” he reportedly told journalists, as he answered questions on his return from Azerbaijan. Erdogan has long been clear about both his own and his party’s position on the LGBTI community, which they see as a danger for the institution of family.
Homosexuality does not constitute a crime in Turkey, but hostility toward it is widespread, and police crackdowns on Pride parades have become tougher over the years, Reuters observed two years ago, when the Turkish President had once again declared that he doesn’t “recognize LGBT.”
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