LOC20:25
17:25 GMT
ISTANBUL, May 23 (KUNA) - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced 2026-2035 a "Decade of Family and Population," launching the decade-long family initiative.
In a speech to the International Family Forum in Istanbul on Friday, he urged protecting the family values as a means of reversing the decline in the global fertility rate.
"Family is so important, valuable, and sacred that no other institution, relationship, or bond can replace it," Anadolu Agency quoted President Erdogan as saying.
"Family is one of the most important institutions in human history and for humanity itself. Family is so important, valuable, and sacred that no other institution, relationship, or bond can replace it," he underlined.
"Societies in which the family collapses, disintegrates, or wears down are doomed to languish, degenerate, fall apart, and eventually die.
"It is our fundamental duty to combat any threats or attacks on the family, as well as to glorify and strengthen the family institution.
"To defend the family means to defend the human being. Protecting the family sustains society; fostering the family builds the future," the president stressed.
He warned that globalization, modernization, and digitalization are accelerating changes that weaken the traditional family unit.
"As our lives become more digitalized in every way, many traditional institutions, most notably the concept of family, are losing meaning.
"While humanitarian values are eroding, a self-centered mindset is replacing a society-centered perspective.
"We are aware that the modern era is causing significant harm to many human values as well as the family institution," he went on.
Recent data from Turkiye's statistical agency show the country's fertility rate has dropped to 1.48, below the critical replacement level of 2.1, he said, calling the situation "a disaster."
The decade-long family initiative envisages broad reforms ranging from education and urban planning to social policy, all aimed at strengthening the family, according to the Turkish leader.
The two-day forum, organized under the auspices of Turkiye's Family and Social Services Ministry as part of the country's 2025 Year of the Family initiative, came to a close on Friday.
It featured a ministerial session and four panel discussions: "Highly profitable: The cost of global challenges to individuals, families and society," "Between fiction and reality: Family in culture, art and media," "Being a family in the age of screens," and "The Myth of overpopulation: How a global agenda contributed to decline of populations. (end)
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