Derya Yanik, the Minister of Family and Social Services announced that the Turkish government will provide financial support to widowed women on housing, should they have at least three children under the age of 18, Diken news website reported on Monday.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan frequently calls on Turkish women to have at least three children in order to maintain the country’s young population.
Last week, he urged his new deputy to have more children, claiming that PKK [Kurdistan Workers’ Party] members are having 15, prompting heavy criticism from political opposition and women’s and human rights defenders.
“How many children do you have,” Erdogan asked Mehmet Ali Celebi who has recently joined his Justice and Development Party (AKP). Following Celebi’s answer that he has one child, “No, we need to increase the numbers. Children are very important. Look, the PKK has 5, 10 and 15,” Erdogan said to Celebi and his wife, standing next to him.
“Within the scope of Housing Support Program for widowed women, we will provide 2,023 houses. With a total budget of 607 million liras, we will provide 300,000 liras per household,” Diken cited Family and Social Services Minister Yanik as saying.
However, having at least three children under the age of 18 was among the conditions of application to the program, the news outlet added.
During a wedding ceremony he served as a witness in 2018, Erdogan urged the new couple for having many children, claiming that strong nations are made of strong families.
“I always have an advice. One is strange, two becomes rivals, three creates balance, four brings prosperity and the rest is in Allah’s hands,” Erdogan said, whom himself is the father of four.
“They deceived us with birth control for years,’’ he added.
In a speech back in 2016, Erdogan said family planning and contraception were not for Muslim families, prompting anger among women’s rights activists. In a separate speech, he said a woman’s life was “incomplete” if she failed to have offspring.
Source:gerceknews
