Numan Kurtulmus, deputy chair of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) is used to the rage of women. In July, he opened a Pandora’s box on the Istanbul Convention, an international accord that combats violence against women and domestic violence, by saying that its ratification had been a mistake. The debate that followed has taken thousands of women across the country to the streets, resulted in several online campaigns and created a crack in the ruling party on the future of the convention.

Next, the AKP heavyweight turned an accusing finger to the country’s 3 million-plus single population. Invited to speak at a conference of Turkey’s civil servants union, MEMUR-SEN, Kurtulmus lauded the family as the “strong foundation” and the “stem cell” of the Turkish nation. “Undermining the family is one of the most cunning [means] to destroy a nation,” he said. “Strong individualism, coupled with hedonistic trends … have put dynamite in the foundations of the family. … [Those individualists] who live alone and see marriage as unnecessary are among the main problems we see now against the family and its values.”

His portrayal of “people who live alone” and “have no intention of marrying” as hedonistic and “troublesome” have spurred hundreds of witty rejoinders on social media. But the butt of the jokes was on Devlet Bahceli, chair of the Nationalist Movement Party and a confirmed bachelor at the age of 71. “Being left out of the Cabinet seems to have taken its toll [on Kurtulmus] who has not realized that his words may end up targeting [his party’s] small ally,” tweeted Haluk Ilicak, a former ambassador. Others have called upon Bahceli to block Kurtulmus, mocking the remarks with the hashtag #therootofmytroubles.

Faced with ridicule, Kurtulmus hastened to explain himself through a wave of statements to favored columnists and TV channels. “My words were taken out of context. I have many friends who live alone and it is unthinkable that I [criticize] them,” he told Murat Celik of Posta, adding that he expressed a nostalgia for larger families and that what he meant with singles was “single parents” or people with “alternative lifestyles.” In a statement to the semi-official Anadolu News Agency, he spat fire at “attempts to undermine the family” or “pit men and women against each other” — a thinly veiled reference to the Istanbul Convention that he called earlier as a front of the LGBT lobbies.