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.”