President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was in Istanbul on Sunday as the congresses of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) nears its conclusion. The seventh congress of the party’s women's branch was held in Istanbul’s Haliç Convention Center a few weeks before the general congress of the party.
Amid cheers of a large crowd of female members of the AK Party, the president made a speech heaping praise on women’s role in carrying the party to successive victories in the elections. “It is through women who win the hearts of families, from male members to children. Any political movement excluding women is doomed to fail. Our party considered this and always attached importance to women and youth in its ranks,” he told the audience.
The AK Party has been going through a series of provincial congresses since last year’s municipal elections where the public “gave a message” to the party, as Erdoğan said earlier. The congresses aim to reshuffle cadres of the party across the country after unprecedented losses in the local elections, the first in decades for the AK Party. A “Grand Congress” will conclude the process on Feb. 23. The president has pledged earlier to have new names in administrative branches of the party and a renewed political mindset.
Erdoğan stated that the AK Party’s women’s and youth branches set an example for other parties that sought to mimic their success. “We are glad to set up an example. We attach importance to our network of women because women influence everything. Starting from family, they influence the entire society and mankind. If men are pillars of the family, women are the foundation of the family,” Erdoğan said.
“We reached out to households through women, and this led us to reach 50% of the vote in the past elections. Women are conquerors and they can carry our party to the place it deserves to be. We hope to reach 50% again in 2028 (elections),” he said. “We have faith in our women who never abandoned us,” he added.
The municipal elections proved a challenge for the party, which failed to retake its former strongholds, such as Ankara and Istanbul, from the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), while losing some mayoral seats to the CHP.
Although it is casually labeled as “Islamist” or “conservative” by its critics, the AK Party became a staple of Turkish politics with its all-embracing politics when it was launched more than two decades ago. Voters who endorsed left-wing or right-wing parties of the yesteryear and were disillusioned with the tumultuous era of unstable coalition governments carried the party to its first victory. In the ensuing years, the party strengthened its ranks with new transfers, welcoming prominent politicians who were once its opponents, including several from its main rival, the CHP. Its ties with disadvantaged communities, as well as communities who were deprived of their rights by the past governments, such as Kurds, cemented the party’s place in politics.
Erdoğan lambasted CHP in his speech and said neither the opposition nor "groups lacking identity with which they align" received support from the public. "They cannot challenge us, so they try to attack public officials and the public itself," he said. He referred to CHP's severe criticism of prosecutors who launched probes against corruption and irregularities in CHP-run municipalities. "They are making institutions as a tool of their own personal stunts," he said. On Friday, Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu, who was accused of insulting an expert witness in a trial against him, was summoned to a courthouse in Istanbul to testify. A crowd gathered around the courthouse in support of Imamoğlu, while the mayor's critics claimed the crowd included "hired" people and employees of the municipality transported to the courthouse by public buses. "They cannot hide their ambitions," Erdoğan said, in a thinly veiled reference to claims that İmamoğlu would run for president in the next election. "The main opposition party is no different than a circus now. They have a chairperson carrying a red card and a former chairperson showing him a yellow card," Erdoğan said. CHP leader Özgür Özel recently launched a "red card" campaign and urged supporters to carry a literal red card in their pockets to "show to the government," while his predecessor Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu criticized the current administration of CHP for dragging the presidential candidacy process.
The president also pointed out the fact that women suffer most in today’s world, where “dark projects are being implemented.” He highlighted the sinister "genderless” plot of which Türkiye should distance itself.
Erdoğan stated that women have always been an inseparable part of the family in Türkiye and were always revered. “Removing the line between man and woman by being drifted by global winds does not make us modern people. It makes us puppets of imperialists,” the president said. He lamented the fact that the number of marriages dropped and the rate of divorces increased and countries were taking measures against this phenomenon. He said the Turkish government took measures against it and supported families. “We will implement new policies for the institution of the family,” he said.
"We see scenarios where our population will go into a decline starting in 2035 and will drop to 65 million in 2100 as desire to have children decreased among our youth. This is a striking sign of danger," Erdoğan, who always advises newlyweds to have at least three children, said.
The president has earlier declared 2025 as the "Year of the Family," and last month, presented a series of benefits for young couples about to marry and for parents. One key initiative was expanding the interest-free loan program for newlywed couples. The program offers a TL150,000 ($4,226) loan with a 48-month repayment term and a two-year grace period. Another significant announcement was the increase in birth assistance. The government raised the one-time aid for the first child to TL 5,000. Additionally, for the second child, families will receive TL 1,500 per month and for the third child and beyond, the support increases to TL 5,000 per month.
