{"id":1184,"date":"2014-12-22T14:08:38","date_gmt":"2014-12-22T14:08:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/?p=1184"},"modified":"2014-12-23T14:17:47","modified_gmt":"2014-12-23T14:17:47","slug":"turkeys-president-accuses-advocates-of-birth-control-of-being-traitors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/?p=1184","title":{"rendered":"Turkey\u2019s President Accuses Advocates of Birth Control of Being Traitors"},"content":{"rendered":"

By CEYLAN YEGINSU
\nThe New York Times<\/em><\/p>\n

ISTANBUL \u2014 He has called women unequal to men. He has demanded that some high school students learn an Ottoman-era script scrapped nearly a century ago. Now, he has described birth control as treasonous.<\/p>\n

In his campaign to buttress what he sees as Turkey\u2019s rightful place in the world, the president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has offended many who view his assertions as sexist, paranoid or outdated.<\/p>\n

\"Erdogan<\/a>
Erdogan made the comments on Sunday, addressing the bride and groom at the wedding ceremony of the son of businessman Mustafa Kefeli who is one his close allies. (Courtesy: Do\u011fan Haber Ajans\u0131. http:\/\/english.alarabiya.net).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The latest came on Sunday, when Mr. Erdogan upstaged a wedding couple with a speech in which he described birth control as a threat to the country\u2019s lineage.<\/p>\n

As a witness to the newlyweds, the president urged them to have at least three children, and blamed contraception advocates for hindering the country\u2019s growth.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor years they committed a treason of birth control in this country, seeking to dry up our bloodline,\u201d he said in a speech during the wedding ceremony. \u201cLineage is very important, both economically and spiritually.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Erdogan, an Islamist leader, has made comments on the subject of reproduction that others view as divisive and chauvinist. Over the course of his 11 years as the dominant leader of Turkey, he has expressed strong opposition toward abortion and contraception, and has called on women to have at least three children, but preferably four or five.<\/p>\n

But until now he had not equated birth control with an act of treason.<\/p>\n

Last month, he drew the ire of women when he declared that they were not equal to men. Speaking at a women\u2019s conference<\/a>, he said Islam had \u201cdefined a position for women: motherhood.\u201d<\/p>\n

Explaining his position, Mr. Erdogan said: \u201cSome people can understand this, while others can\u2019t. You cannot explain this to feminists because they don\u2019t accept the concept of motherhood.\u201d<\/p>\n

His comments set off a wave of criticism from women\u2019s rights advocates, who warned that such remarks undermined the role of women in society, which leads to discrimination and violence.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not just about the president interfering in people\u2019s private lives,\u201d said Ebru Kazanc, a member of the Platform to Stop Violence Against Women. \u201cHe is actively stalling the process for women to obtain equal rights in this country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Erdogan\u2019s critics say that the president sometimes resorts to inflammatory comments about women to divert attention from pressing issues in the political agenda.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s a coincidence that he made the comments about birth control just a day before his ex-ministers were being questioned about the corruption allegations against them,\u201d Ms. Kazanc added, referring to a sprawling case that has threatened Mr. Erdogan\u2019s government.<\/p>\n

This month, Mr. Erdogan appeared to stir another backlash by decreeing mandatory courses at religious high schools in Ottoman Turkish, a version of Arabic script replaced with the Latin alphabet by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey in 1923. Critics called Mr. Erdogan a throwback to the sultan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By CEYLAN YEGINSU The New York Times ISTANBUL \u2014 He has called women unequal to men. He has demanded that some high school students learn [more >>>]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1185,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-turkey","category-turkey-human-rights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1184"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1186,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1184\/revisions\/1186"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}