President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has pledged to combat global "attacks" on the family institution, calling for a unified national front against cultural imperialism and digital threats.
"The threat has only changed in form and size. But the target remains the same. The target is the people, the target is the family, the target is the destruction of our national and spiritual values," Erdoğan said on Jan. 17 during an event in Istanbul.
The president said his government is taking measures "at every level."
"We are facing a risk of decay extending from the individual to the family, and from the family to society, due to the impositions of cultural imperialism on a global scale," he said.
"We are facing challenges that threaten all of humanity, from the young to the old, and our 86 million citizens, from deviant movements like LGBT to addiction, from the destruction of privacy to attacks on the family institution," he added.
Erdoğan outlined government action plans designed to "eradicate" online betting and gambling while strengthening the family unit. However, he emphasized that state intervention alone would not suffice to counter these "global threats."
"We can only repel this wave of attacks targeting our youth, our generation, our future if we unite, act and fight together," Erdoğan said. "It's not enough to just clean up our own backyard. We must also join hands with our neighbors, extend a helping hand and assist them," he added.
The president called on a wide spectrum of society — including media, universities, athletes, artists and political parties — to join a "spirit of total solidarity" against the negative effects of "digital techno culture."
"We can only break this wicked siege, which aims to render the family insignificant, erode our values, spiritually and mentally destroy our youth, and thus gradually enslave the individual, if we join hands," he said.
Throughout his address, Erdoğan criticized those "who market "modernization copied from the West as progress," without naming specific political opponents.
"They saw a youth who knew both the West and the East as a threat to their ideology... Many of the problems we face today stem from this distorted mentality, which is disgusted by its own values and the sensitivities of the nation," he said.
"During periods dominated by a Jacobin, elitist, and condescending mentality, the cement holding society together weakened. For 23 years, we have also been trying to correct these accumulated mistakes," he added.
