Tag: Turkish children

  • A third of Turkey’s population is children

    A third of Turkey’s population is children

    Thirty percent of Turkey’s population accounts for children, a report of the Turkish Statistics Institute published on Monday says.

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    According to the report, the number of children in Turkey in 2012 made up more than 22.692 million.

    According to the forecast of the Statistics Institute of Turkey, it is expected that the percentage of children in Turkey will drop to 25.7 percent in 2023, to 19.31 per cent in 2050 and to 17.6 per cent in 2075.

    According to the official data, over the last 25 years, a sharp decline in the birth rate has been observed in Turkey. If in 1984, 100 Turkish women gave birth to an average of 390 children (rate – 3.9), then in 2009 100 Turkish women gave birth to only 212 children.

  • Education of Turkish children in Germany overshadows Angela Merkel visit

    Education of Turkish children in Germany overshadows Angela Merkel visit

    German Chancellor Angela Merkel has arrived in Turkey for an official visit overshadowed by disagreements over Ankara’s plans to join the EU.

    Merkel

    Mrs Merkel opposes full EU membership for Turkey, which began negotiations to become a member in 2005.

    There are also disagreements over the education of Turkish children in Germany in the Turkish language.

    Germany is Turkey’s biggest trading partner, and nearly three million Turks live in Germany.

    Turkey’s sometimes fraught relationship with the European Union won’t be helped by this visit.

    After months of avoiding the subject, Chancellor Merkel has chosen this moment to revive her idea of offering Turkey what she calls a privileged partnership with the EU, rather than full membership.

    Mrs Merkel has stressed that she does see integration as possible in up to 28 of the 35 so-called chapters of EU law with which Turkey has to comply before it can become a full member of the union.

    But her proposal has been firmly rejected by the Turkish government as a breach of the terms agreed when membership negotiations began five years ago.

    ‘Insulted’

    “Such a thing as privileged partnership does not exist,” said Egemen Bagis, Turkey’s minister for European affairs.

    “So we do not take that option seriously because there is no legal foundation of it. At times I feel insulted for being offered something which does not exist.”

    The chancellor does have plenty of other topics to discuss here, including Iran’s nuclear programme.

    Turkey has recently strengthened its relations with Iran and opposes the tougher sanctions threatened by Western governments.

    But their differences over EU membership will cast a shadow over any common ground they do find during this visit.

    BBC