Turkey attempts to retrieve child from foreign gay couple

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet

DHA Photo

Turkey recently launched a campaign to retrieve Turkish children in European countries who have been taken from their parents and given to Christian couples, starting the process by taking back children from gay and lesbian couples.

One of the main cases included in the campaign revolves around 9-year-old Yunus, who was taken from his parents at the age of six months after his parents allegedly dropped him on the ground. The child was then placed under the care of a lesbian couple in the Netherlands.

Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdağ instructed Turkish representatives in foreign countries to jumpstart the process to take Yunus back from the family, including making official contacts with the Dutch government.

Turkish Parliament’s Human Rights Commission was also instructed to conduct searches in other countries and prepare a report on the matter.

Commission head Ayhan Sefer Üstün said custody of the child was “a sacred right” that should not be decided through administrative services.

“It requires for a judicial process,” Üstün said. “We don’t condemn that culture, but the child has been given to a foreign culture, to a lesbian family. Even if a child is taken from the family for the right reasons, he or she should be placed with a family closer to his or her culture.”

The Azeroğlu family that Yunus was taken from had applied to courts previously for his return, but the courts rejected the application, allegedly because the mother didn’t speak any Dutch.

Turkish authorities will also be applying to courts citing a violation of human rights and psychological damage done to the child. Bozdağ also said they would start official procedures on the governmental level with the Dutch state.