Turkey’s president attacks ‘perverse’ LGBTQ+ community as he launches ‘Year of the Family’

Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, launched the Year of the Family, by criticising the LGBTQ+ community for supposedly undermining traditional values.

The president, who has held office since 2014, is vehemently anti-LGBTQ+ and announced last week that 2025 had been designated the year of the family. The campaign seeks to promote marriage and bolster Turkey’s birth rate, which dropped from an average of 2.1 in 2014 to 1.51 in 2023.

As part of the programme, financial incentives will be offered, including newlywed couples being eligible for interest-free loans of 150,000 lira (approximately £3,500/$4,200), and parents will be given extra money based on the number of children they have.

Giving a speech in the capital, Ankara, Erdoğan said population growth had “reached alarming levels”, adding: “While our child and youth population is shrinking, for the first time in our history, the elderly population has surpassed 10 per cent and our average age is approaching 34.”

He took aim at consumer culture, which, he said, was leaving people “afraid, hesitant and disillusioned about starting a family due to the daunting costs”. He then turned his anger towards the LGBTQ+ community.

“It is our common responsibility to protect our children and youth from harmful trends and perverse ideologies,” he said. “Neoliberal cultural trends are crossing borders and penetrating all corners of the world. They also lead to LGBT and other movements gaining ground.

“The target of gender-neutralisation policies, in which LGBT is used as a battering ram, is the family. Criticism of LGBT is immediately silenced, just like the legitimate criticisms of Zionism. Anyone who defends nature and the family is subject to heavy oppression.”

Being LGBTQ+ in Turkey is already difficult, with the country scoring just five out of a possible 100 on ILGA-Europe’s 2024 rainbow map.

While homosexuality is legal, the country does not recognise same-sex marriage, civil unions or domestic partnership benefits, and same-sex adoption is not permitted. There are few legal protections against discrimination, and LGBTQ+ people cannot openly serve in the military.

Freedom of speech is stifled and Pride festivals have been banned – although that hasn’t stopped people marching in protest.

During Pride month in 2023, hundreds of people were arrested at marches in Izmir and the ancient city of Istanbul.

The demonstrators waved flags and held placards which read “Run Tayyip, run. Queers are coming.”

Speaking to Euronews at the time, Istanbul Pride committee member Can Kortun said the police were scared of the community. “They are aware of our strength and numbers. They are aware of the change we can accomplish.”

In the past, Erdoğan has said he would never be “pro-LGBT” because “family is sacred”, adding: “In this nation, the foundations of the family are stable. LGBT will not emerge in this country. Stand up straight, like a man. That is how our families are.”

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