Erdoğan urges women to participate in politics

ANKARA

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Dec. 11 urged women to participate more in every area of politics and promised to provide support.

“I want all of our women to have more roles in every area of politics. You will request it, put up a fight, and we will give support. Hopefully, we will reach the result we want,” Erdoğan said.

The president’s remarks came during a speech at the sixth International Forum of Women in Local Governments.

Erdoğan also conveyed that the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has one of the largest women’s organizations.

He added that the participation rate of women in politics increased in the last 17 years of the AKP rule: women consist of 17 percent of the parliament.

“We will not only celebrate International Women’s Day but also act on this,” he said.

Underlining that the current level is “not enough,” Erdoğan said that improvement in this area “should not be overlooked.”

“In the local elections held in March, we wanted to have at least one third of our women as city council members,” he said.

“Although this rate was not reached among the elected, we see that women undertake more duties in city councils, compared to the past,” he added.

The president also said that violence against women is among the top issues that need to be tackled.

“A lot will fall into place when we acknowledge that above all, the women’s issue is a human issue,” he said.

He said that Turkey is working to eliminate the unfairness against women.

Erdoğan also said that a woman has an “exceptional” position as a mother, and “it’s not possible to not talk about family when talking about women.”

“Today, the most important problem of developed countries is that the institution of family has been fully or partially destroyed,” he said.

“Any move which aims to break off a woman from the family is targeting the humanity,” he added.