"We need to develop a stronger family diplomacy at the international level. Just like the environment, climate or human rights, the family should now be a global agenda item. We must maintain a basis for cooperation that protects cultural values while prioritizing universal principles,” Family and Social Services Minister Mahinur Özdemir Göktaş told an audience of ministers and dignitaries from around the world on Thursday. She was attending the inaugural International Family Forum in Istanbul, attended by ministers from 27 countries.
The two-day event, being held under the theme "Our Family, Our Future,” is organized under the auspices of Türkiye’s Family and Social Services Ministry as part of the country's 2025 Year of the Family initiative. The Turkish government champions family-oriented policies against the threat of an aging population, as official figures point out, and what it calls a creeping propaganda by LGBT lobbies against the concept of traditional family.
Delivering her opening speech at the event, Göktaş said coming together for this forum in an era of increasing global uncertainty and deep societal change, the forum sends a strong message to the international community. She said issues ranging from digitalization and demographic shifts to cultural dynamics and social policy will be addressed during the event.
She emphasized that the forum would focus on global risks to the family institution and explore how to enhance family-centered policies on an international level. "Our greatest hope is for the dialogue we build here to continue beyond the forum and pave the way for lasting international cooperation to address threats facing families and dynamic population structures,” she said. The minister also stressed the need for strategies that prioritize family protection in every field – from urban planning and education to media content and digital platforms.
The event features a ministerial session and four panel discussions: "Highly Profitable: The Cost of Global Challenges to Individuals, Families and Society,” "Between Fiction and Reality: The Family in Culture, Art and Media,” "Being a Family in the Age of Screens,” and "The Myth of Overpopulation: How the Global Agenda Contributed to Population Decline.”
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is expected to deliver the closing remarks, while first lady Emine Erdoğan will also meet participants.
The forum aims to bring together high-level officials, experts and other stakeholders to protect and strengthen the institution of family and marriage, and to preserve generations and a strong population structure. It aims to contribute to a better understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing families and communities, and to provide a common platform to discuss ways to protect and strengthen the family institution and better support families in fulfilling their critical role in our societies. The event also aims to put forward a concrete initiative to establish a common position on the protection of the family institution and its values on international platforms.
