Turkish PM Yıldırım criticizes positive discrimination for women

ANKARA

AA Photo

Speaking on the 82nd anniversary of the granting of women’s right to vote in Turkey, Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım has criticized the practice of positive discrimination, saying women and men are “two parts of a whole.”

“Instead of having quotas for women, there should be more space for women to strive. Quotas are a kind of protectionism and protectionism is a big obstacle for development,” Yıldırım said at a ceremony in the capital Ankara.

“Today is the 82nd anniversary of the granting of the right to vote and be elected to women. The rights gained by great struggles are more valuable. Men and women fought together in the War of Independence while building up the republic in Turkey’s Anatolian soil,” he added.

“We are all together in joy and in sadness, because men and women complement each other. Men and women are equal, but they are two parts of a whole,” Yıldırım added.

“We have many successful women who have become senior executives. The number of women who have become prominent in politics is rising,” he said.

Women won the right to vote in municipal elections during the early years of the Republic of Turkey on March 20, 1930, and they were granted full universal suffrage on Dec. 5, 1934.