YÜZÜNCÜ YILINDA TÜRKİYE DEMOGRAFİSİ
DEMOGRAPHY OF TURKIYE IN A CENTURY

Summary/Abstract: This study will focus on the population structure, policies and mobility in Türkiye within a period of one hundred years since the foundation of the Republic. The new nation-state inherited a rural society that had been reduced and disorganised due to war, migration, disease, etc. The Turkish and Muslim elements coming to the mainland from the lost territories began to form the population structure of Turkey. Since its foundation, the Republic of Türkiye has adopted pro-natalist policies to increase population and encourage births on the axis of the view that "population growth supports economic development" and encouraged the increase of fertility and the arrival of Turkish and Muslim elements to Türkiye. In this direction, legal arrangements have been made to criminalise the production, importation and application of contraceptive methods and the termination of pregnancy by voluntary abortion. At the same time, having many children is directly or indirectly encouraged. The establishment of free maternity homes and the lowering of the legal marriage age from 18 to 17 for men and from 17 to 15 for women were supported. From the 1960s onwards, with the transition to the planned period, it is observed that policies to reduce population and control births (anti-natalist) have been adopted. Thus, population policies started to be implemented in line with the view that "population growth is an obstacle to economic development". In this respect, the Law No. 557 on Population Planning re-legalised the sale, import and application of contraceptive methods. Law No. 2827 on Population Planning adopted in 1983 legalised the voluntary termination of pregnancies up to the tenth week and the tubal ligation of women and men. Since 2008, the population-increasing policies that attracted attention with the discourse of "at least 3 children" have become operational again. In addition to increases and decreases in births and deaths, population mobility due to international mass migration has also marked the last years of Türkiye’s hundred-year demographic adventure.

• Details
• Contents