Turkish President Erdogan asks his lawmaker to have at least 3 children. Here's why

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has created a stir by advising one of his lawmakers to have at least three children.

During a meeting with Mehmet Ali Celebi, who recently joined Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) and his wife, Erdogan asked the couple about how many children they had?

On learning that the couple has only one child, Erdogan advised the couple to have more children reminding them that Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) affiliated families have 5-10 children.

Mehmet Ali Celebi has recently joined Erdogan's party. The Turkish President met him and his wife on Wednesday, asking them about the number of their children.

When Erdogan heard that they only had one child, he asked for more, saying PKK-affiliated families have 5-10 children. pic.twitter.com/aDwYpMMt2F

— Karwan Faidhi Dri (@KarwanFaidhiDri) October 20, 2022

"Children are very important," Erdogan said to the couple. This left the couple slightly embarassed and they left off smiling.

But this isn't the first time that Erdogan, who is himself the father of four children, has asked someone to produce more than one child. In the past decade, he has asked Turkish people to have at least 3 children who will serve the country in future. 

Why Erdogan is pressing for more children in Turkey?

• Erdogan has professed his thought of having at least three children because, according to him, "one or two children mean bankruptcy." In 2013, in Ankara, when he was the Prime Minister of the country, he had repeated his call to Turkish families to have at least three children.
• Not only this, he is strictly against birth control measures. He had once deemed birth control as a "betrayal" against the country and suggested having more children to keep the population dynamic.
• "At least three children are necessary in each family, because our population risks aging. We are still on the good side, as we still own a young and dynamic population. But we are slowly aging. Presently, the whole western world is trying to cope with this problem. Please do not take our susceptibility lightly, this is a very serious issue," Erdogan had said at the International family and Social Policies Summit in 2013.
• In 2015, he had urged the Turkish residents in Europe to have at least five children, telling the Turkish diaspora in Europe that they were the continent's future.
• In February 2020, he had again reiterated his call of having three children to his deputies in the party. He had expressed his dissatisfaction with the lawmakers who have only one child. "You stick with having one child.I'm saying at least three. I don't want one child for the vitality of our country," Erdogan had said.

Does Erdogan fear of being outnumbered by Kurds?

Erdogan fears that the rising population of Kurdish families in the southeastern part of Turkey (Northern Kurdistan) might affect his party's support base as the Kurds might take over in the future.