Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan targeted LGBTI+ community once again as « the biggest threat against the Turkish family » during his speech at the Council on Families and stated that the Turkish population should increase.
Published by Duvar English on the 26th of October 2023
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Oct. 26 targeted the LGBTI+ community as « the biggest threat against the family » in Turkey in his speech at the 8th Council on Families.
He also criticized the weakening of the family institution and said that the country’s population should increase “way more,” reminding of the AKP’s minimum three-children suggestion per family.
Erdoğan also complained that the marriage age and divorce rates in Turkey continuously increased, and the number of children decreased. Calling “global ungendering efforts” the biggest threat against the family, Erdoğan said these “deviant trends” directly targeted the family.
“The family is sacred in our belief and culture. Religion and morals are learned in families,” said Erdoğan, and warned against “all attempts to weaken the family institution.”
“The People’s Alliance does not accept LGBT. Let the [opposition] Nation Alliance have it, they can use it however they like. We cannot allow anyone to defile the sacred family,” he added.
Erdoğan regularly embarks on anti-LGBTI+ and “pro-family” speeches. During general election campaigns, the ruling AKP and the People’s Alliance adopted an increasingly fragrant anti-LGBTI+ rhetoric. Immediately after his win was announced on May 28, Erdoğan gave a spontaneous speech that targeted LGBTI+ individuals in Turkey. Pride parades are banned and violently dispersed each year.