Turkey launches ‘Year of the Family’ with attack on LGBTQ+ community
Istanbul, Jan 13: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has marked the launch of Turkey’s “Year of the Family” on Monday with an attack on the LGBTQ+ community and the announcement of measures to boost birth rates.
Citing the “historical truth that a strong family paves the way for a strong state,” Erdogan unveiled a series of financial measures to support young families.
The president returned to themes he has espoused before about LGBTQ+ people, including the portrayal of the LGBTQ+ movement as part of a foreign conspiracy aimed at undermining Turkey.
“It is our common responsibility to protect our children and youth from harmful trends and perverse ideologies. Neoliberal cultural trends are crossing borders and penetrating all corners of the world,” he told an audience in Ankara. “They also lead to LGBT and other movements gaining ground.
“The target of gender neutralisation policies, in which LGBT is used as a battering ram, is the family. Criticism of LGBT is immediately silenced, just like the legitimate criticisms of Zionism. Anyone who defends nature and the family is subject to heavy oppression.” Despite its low profile in Turkey, the LGBTQ+ community has emerged as one of the main targets of the government and its supporters in recent years. Pride parades have been banned since 2015, with those seeking to participate facing tear gas and police barricades. In recent years, meanwhile, anti-LGBTQ+ rallies have received state support. (AP)
King Charles to attend Auschwitz camp liberation anniversary
London, Jan 13: Buckingham Palace on Monday revealed that King Charles III’s first foreign visit of 2025 will be to Poland for the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the former German Nazi concentration camp of Auschwitz on January 27, 1945.
The 76-year-old monarch will attend a commemoration ceremony later this month at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum and Memorial after meetings with political leaders and members of the local community in the southern Polish city of Krakow. “The King will attend a commemoration service at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum and Memorial in Poland, marking 80 years since the liberation of the former German Nazi concentration camp on 27th January 1945,” Buckingham Palace said in a statement.
Prior to the commemorations, he will meet members of the local community in Krakow. He will also meet Polish President Andrzej Duda, the palace said.
According to officials, the visit will be Charles’ fifth to Poland, with more recent visits including in 2008 with Queen Camilla and in 2010 as part of a wider European tour to Hungary and the Czech Republic. Ahead of his tour, the King is hosting a reception this week at Buckingham Palace to mark Holocaust Memorial Day. The event, aimed at showcasing projects educating future generations about the Holocaust, will include Charles meeting 94-year-old Manfred Goldberg who survived the Nazi concentration camps. (PTI)