WUNRN
TURKEY - PRIME MINISTER PUSHES FOR
"THREE CHILDREN INCENTIVE" FOR POPULATION GROWTH
AA Photo
ANKARA - Hürriyet - February 10, 2013 - Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has assigned
four ministers to boost Turkish population policy, instructing a future
Parliamentary commission on the issue to research social consequences as well.
Erdoğan has told ministers in the past two meetings to work more on
increasing the number of children in a family to at least three through
initiatives by both the government as well as his ruling Justice and
Development Party (AKP).
Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan, Health Minister Mehmet Müezzinoğlu,
Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek and Family and Social Policies
Minister Fatma Şahin will work on the financial dimension of the
population policy while a future Parliamentary commission will research its
social consequences.
The four ministers will form an “incentive for children,” which is expected to
be issued for families with four children at most, by examining the models of
European countries, where incentives from 100 to 200 euros are given for each
child.
Erdoğan has often called on families to have at least three children in
several speeches.
“One or two children mean bankruptcy. Three children mean we are not improving
but not receding either. At least three children are necessary in each family,
because our population risks aging,” Erdoğan said last month.
AKP Malatya deputy Öznur Çalık asked Parliament Feb. 9 how to prevent the
aging of the Turkish population. A resulting commission will be established to
provide suggestions to the related ministries on what could be done on the
issue. Erdoğan told ministers to “comment on the scientific reasons of the
necessity of having three children in each family.”
Çalık’s motion says the growth rate has to be above 2.1 in order to have a
renewable society.
“It is possible to make the Turkish population’s youth rate stable;
awareness should be raised in families with more than two children. This will
enable protecting the present population and age statistics, although it may
not increase them at first. After a point, this number will be more than three
[children], making the population younger than today,” according to the motion
Çalık issued to Parliament.
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TURKEY - DECLINING BIRTH RATES ALARM TURKISH PRIME MINISTER
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TURKEY - WOMEN POINT OUT PITFALLS OF FERTILITY PUSH
The
prime minister's statements against abortion and in favor of large families have
something like the power of unwritten law. That's why some women have joined
the anti-government protests and others follow his pronouncements with worry.
Rakiye
Akinci, 32, and three of her children gather in the living room of their
Istanbul apartment to read the Quran together.Credit: Erin Browner
ISTANBUL,
Turkey (WOMENSENEWS)--Prime Minister Tayyip
Erdogan's urging of women to have bigger families--at least three
children, or better yet, five--worries Nacide Berber.
The
33-year-old volunteer for a feminist organization in Istanbul called Mor Cati, which translates to "purple
roof," said the government should have no role in family
planning.
"According
to me, the woman has to decide how many children she wants to have because we
are talking about our bodies, women's bodies, and the woman has to decide what
she wants to do," Berber said in an interview at Mor Cati's Istanbul
office.
Berber,
who lives with her husband in Istanbul, said Erdogan's stance on abortion--to
ban it after eight weeks of pregnancy instead of the current 10--is close to an
outright ban. Giving women only eight weeks to decide, plan and access abortion
services makes it impossible for some women in Turkey to participate.
While
Erdogan has not issued any legislation to limit abortions to eight weeks, some
hospitals, due to the controversial nature of abortion, have
followed Erdogan's suggestion.
"When
Erdogan gave a speech about three children, I was very nervous and I complained
about it because women have a right to decide how many children they
want," said Berber.
She
said that even though Erdogan is still just at the talking stage about
population policy, the government still has influence over family planning in
private households of Turkey due to the country's patriarchal makeup.
Pelin Batu, a Turkish actress, poet,
author and activist, agrees. "Every time the prime minister
gives a speech, it's almost as if he's acting the part of a social architect,
wherein he's preaching for us to be a religious family or he wants religious
youth," she said.
Fertility
Push
The prime
minister's fertility push began in 2008. That year, on March 8, in a speech in
the provincial city of Usak to commemorate International Women's Day, he
advised his "dear sisters" to have at least three, preferably five,
children.
Afterwards
a Turkish daily newspaper
suggested that perhaps Erdogan
would like to see International Women's Day renamed "International
Childbirth Day."
In
his frequent speeches about matters of private family life, Erdogan has decried
the evils of abortion and Caesarean sections, which are issues that drew many
women to the anti-government demonstrations in Istanbul's Gezi Park.
"They
are saying I am interfering in their lives when I call on women to have at
least three children," Erdogan told a crowd of supporters in a speech
outside the Justice and Development Party's (AKP) Istanbul
office on Aug. 8. "We have not brought out
a legal obligation for this. This is something optional. But I, as a prime
minister, am recommending three children. This is my most natural right. We are
not holding a gun to anybody's head [to have three children]."
Erdogan's
rhetoric has translated into governmental restrictions on alcohol sales and advertising.
Batu
said Erdogan's population politics are fueled by his capitalistic desires for a
strong economy. "The thing is, statistically, [the prime minister is]
right, because when you look at everything from an economical point of view it
makes sense because he obviously wants a young country and a young work
force," she said.
The Hurriyet Daily News reported on April 23 that the
proportion of children in respect to the total population will fall from 30
percent in 2012 to 19.1 percent in 2050.
If
Erdogan is able to spur a baby boom Batu thinks something should be done to
expand the public education system.
"If
you can't educate these kids, then what good is a work force?" said Batu,
who completed her Ph.D. in history at Bogazici University in Turkey.
"Are you going to just stuff them into factories and have this great
preliterate force that's going to feed your economy?"
In
2012, the Turkish government introduced a new national program that extended
mandatory schooling from 8 years to 12 years. Public schools in the country are
free until 12th grade, however Turkish parents are becoming more likely to opt
to pay for private schools due to the quality of education and intense
competition to be accepted into higher education.
Unexpected
Big Family
Leyla Akinci,
a Kurdish woman, spoke to Women's eNews in her home in the
neighborhood of Bagcilar, in the outskirts of Istanbul. She grew up in the
Batman region of eastern Turkey, one of 12 children. Akinci was pulled out
of school when she was 12, then married at 23. At
most, she expected to have two children, but instead she has three and is
expecting another. Akinci's eldest children are Meryem, 9, and
Ahmet, 8. Her youngest child, Avsin, 5, and the child she is expecting were
unplanned.
"I
don't like the idea of having a big family," Akinci said. "It's hard
to feed a lot of children, and they always fight with each other. It's hard to send
them all to school."
Her
son Ahmet runs into their bottom floor apartment after playing soccer in the
street. He yells for her attention, but she goes on to talk about her reaction
to the prime minister's population politics.
"I
can't support it. But when the prime minister proposes this kind of idea, the
government has to offer money or salary to feed these children," Akinci
said.
Turkey's
Family and Social Policies Ministry announced a
financial plan to provide "incentive for children" similar to social
services in European countries, The Hurriyet Daily News reported in
February.
If
the Turkish government were to offer money for families to have more children,
Akinci would not be inclined to participate. "Even if the government
offers money for you to have children, I don't like that because having a big
family is too crowded," she said.
'One
is Enough'
Burce Celik, vice dean of communication at Bahcesehir University,
describes herself as a modern and secular mother and believes Erdogan's
suggestion for three children is not feasible in Turkey's current economy.
"One
is enough for a family" said Celik, 36, whose son is 11 years old.
"Three is too many. Sometimes two is too many. It's so expensive,
especially in Turkey where you don't have good public schools,
you don't have extra benefits. It's very expensive."
One
Kurdish mother of five, Rakiye Akinci--a relative of Leyla Akinci--interprets the prime minister's population politics as an
expression of ethnic rivalry with her community, which has long
sought one of two things: independence or greater political and cultural rights
for Kurds inside the Republic of Turkey.
The
Kurdish community still experiences discrimination by Turks due to armed
conflicts since the 1970s. While some Kurds support Erdogan, most subscribe to
Kurdish and leftist political groups.
Rakiye Akinci,
32, believes most
Turkish families want only two children. She says one of
Erdogan's motivations behind the statement is to increase the Turkish
population in order to further alienate Kurdish people.
"Each
Kurdish family has five or six children. So they see the Kurdish population is
increasing and the Turkish population is decreasing so just want to make sure
that the Turkish population must be increasing," she said.
Rakiye
Akinci grew up in a family of nine siblings
in a town in eastern Turkey. She and her husband agreed to have a large
family in keeping with their shared Kurdish custom. She hopes her children will
have a profession in the future, get married and then look after her as she
grows old.