Yasemin Öney Cankurtaran, main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) vice chair, has said that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan should concern himself with the poverty of Muslim people, instead of telling them how many children they should have.
Speaking during an awards ceremony in Balıkesir’s Edremit district on Sunday, Cankurtaran said: “It is a private issue between a couple to decide how many children they want to have. If the president really wants to concern himself with something, instead of telling Muslim families whether they should use birth control [methods] or not, he should concern himself with finding out the reason why so many Muslim families live in poverty.”
Cankurtaran also argued that by insisting people to have at least three children, Erdoğan aims at separating women from business and social life, making them homebound.
Speaking during an inauguration ceremony of a Women and Democracy Association (KADEM) building on Sunday, Erdoğan criticized women who “abstain from” being a mother.
“Women’s position in business life should not prevent her from being a mother. Women who abstain from being mothers due to their jobs are refusing their femininity. If a woman refuses to be a mother and abstains from managing her house, she is incomplete, no matter how successful she is in her job,” Erdoğan said.
Erdoğan also gave a speech during the 20th foundation anniversary of TÜRGEV last week, saying that Muslim families cannot support practices such as birth control and family planning.
“I say this clearly, we will boost our population, increase [the number of individuals in] our generation. No Muslim family can support practices such as birth control and family planning. We will obey whatever our God and Prophet says,” Erdoğan said.
In December 2014, Erdoğan gave a speech during at wedding and urged the newly married couple to have at least three children to help boost Turkey’s population figures. He added that birth control is a form of “treason” because it “threatens” country’s bloodline