The government's relationship with demography in Turkey has long been based on ideological reflexes rather than a sociological analysis. Yesterday “at least three children” the political mind that today “not enough, make it five” from the line “we are on high alert” panic. This drift is not a change of policy; it is the same mentality declaring its bankruptcy in different tones.
The Minister of Family “we may not be able to find young men for military service” This sentence reveals the essence of the issue. Youth in this country is not seen as a subject, but as a biological reserve to be counted, multiplied and spent when necessary. Citizenship is defined not in terms of the right to life and future security, but in terms of the number of soldiers, population graphs and ideological continuity. This is a naked biopolitical regime in the sense described by Michel Foucault: The state does not protect life, it demands production from life.
That is why the alarm sounds. Because the system is not working.
In Turkey today, marriage is not a romantic bond; it is an economic threshold, a class filter and a process of psychological attrition. The market has organized marriage not as a sacred institution but as an exploitable ritual. Wedding halls, furniture chains, jewelers and organization companies market marriage not as the beginning of a life, but as the first installment of a long-term debt. “Dowry” The label is one of the most shameless inventions of capitalism: Same product, same quality, but multiplied prices because it is offered under a sacred name.
The state does not regulate, control or limit this plunder.
But it increases cultural pressure.
“Once you get married, of course you will.”
“What will the world say?”
“We have our values.”
These sentences present the economic tyranny of the market as a moral imperative. This is exactly what Antonio Gramsci called hegemony: The concealment of economic domination by cultural consent. Young people are blamed for debt; those who do not marry are declared lazy, those who do not have children selfish.
But the truth is clear.
Young people don't get married because they are rational.
Today, young people are calculating risks, estimating costs and weighing the future. Max Weber's instrumental reasoning is at work in the young generation in Turkey. This reason comes to the following conclusion: Under these conditions, marriage is not an investment but an obligation, and children are a heavy responsibility that the state does not assume.
At this point, not only the government but also the opposition is responsible. While the CHP and the opposition in general criticize the government's fertility discourse, they do not embrace why there are no children as a class, economic and structural problem. The fertility crisis “cost of living crisis” the government's politics of alarm, it generates indirect legitimacy for the government's politics of alarm. The opposition offers abstract hope to young people, not security. However, hope does not pay rent, does not cover daycare costs, does not prevent being fired.
Today, the majority of young people in Turkey work without security. Low wages, temporary contracts, non-unionization and a life lived without knowing what will happen tomorrow... Under these conditions, marriage is not a choice; it is an economic gamble and having children is a question of conscience: “What will I leave to this child?”
The state has no answer to this question.
Neither does the opposition.
Women object to this state imaginary built on their bodies, while men dissolve in the spiral of subsistence and debt. Celibacy and childlessness are therefore not a moral deviation but a rational survival strategy. Alarm bells are not calling for young people, they are announcing the failure of the government itself.
From here on it is inevitably political.
The solution does not lie in moral sermons, in calls for childbirth, in symbolic incentive packages. The solution lies in re-establishing the material conditions of life, transforming marriage from a regime of debt into a free choice.
Job security is a constitutional right, not an incentive. You cannot build a family with fixed-term contracts, precarious employment and low wages. Fertility cannot be discussed without permanent employment, union rights and living wages.
Housing is not a market good, but public security. Marriage is postponed if the rent swallows the salary. Without social housing, rent control and long-term housing security for young people “settling down” remains merely rhetorical.
Childcare is not an individual sacrifice but a public responsibility. As long as daycare, education and health care costs are left to the market, having children is a risk of impoverishment. If the state wants children, it has to share the burden of care.
Marriage rituals must be freed from the plunder of the market. Unless the wedding industry is regulated and the cost of marriage is brought down to reasonable levels, young people will be asked to “courage” cannot be expected. The link between cultural oppression and economic exploitation must be broken.
This crisis cannot be overcome without the dissolution of social roles that define women by their fertility and men by the burden of earning a living. Without equal responsibility, equal rights and equal security of life, the family cannot be built; only the burden is transferred.
The opposition must build a language of assurance, not hope. To the youth “tomorrow will be good” is not enough. Unless concrete answers are given to the questions of what tomorrow will be like, with what rights, with what guarantees, the politics of alarm will continue.
The conclusion is clear:
Celibacy in this country is not a choice but a rational line of defense.
The flight from marriage is an economic and political outcome, not a moral one.
Childlessness is not selfishness, but a conscientious objection to futility.
The state cannot demand life without giving life.
The government cannot demand population without offering guarantees.
The opposition cannot silence the alarm without solutions.
And no order that does not build a life “many” by saying, "I can't do it.