As birthrate falls, Erdogan declares ‘decade of the family’

ISTANBUL: In a bid to tackle Turkiye´s falling birthrate, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday announced the “decade of the family”, and again lashed out at the LGBT community as “deviant”.

“The period between 2026 and 2035 has been identified as the decade of family and population,” said Erdogan in opening the International Family Forum in Istanbul. “Our country is facing a great danger: Turkiye´s birthrate for the first time in our history dropped to 1.48” children per woman, he said, citing figures from the Turkish statistical institute (TUIK).

“This is a disaster, this figure is way below the critical threshold of 2.1,” he said. “What we are facing right now is not only a statistic, but a warning pushing us to act. That´s why in recent years, we have taken important steps to encourage... all families to have at least three children.”

Back in 2001, Turkish women had an average of 2.38 children, TUIK statistics show. It is not the first time Erdogan -- a pious Muslim and father of four -- has raised the alarm over Turkey´s declining population, warning last month it was “a threat much more significant than war”.

In January, he declared 2025 would be the “year of the family”. He also used his speech to lash out at the LGBT community, which had been a repeated target of his 2023 election campaign.

“This deviant movement, called LGBT... has turned into a (form of) fascism and oppression which rejects any other different ideology,” he said, saying opposing the LGBT agenda was “fighting for human dignity and honour”.

He also warned against moves to blur the distinction between traditional genders. “Although some opposition parties and some women organisations advocate this deviant movement, degendering projects threaten our national security,” he said, vowing his government would “fight against them with great commitment”.