In two news in the media in the last week, it was pointed out that our young population has decreased in one of them, that is, an elderly society has started to form, and in the other, the family has become smaller. In the content of the news, it is stated that the rate of the population between the ages of 15-24 in our country decreased from 15.6 percent to 15.4 percent in one year and is 12 million 893 thousand 750, while our family is shrinking, the average number of households decreased from 4 in 2008 to 3, however. It was emphasized that the number of people living alone increased considerably and extended families were getting smaller. There are several reasons why our population is getting older and the family is getting smaller. However, it is possible to say that Western imitation, dating back many years, played an important role in the decrease in the number of households. Because for many years, the Western society (USA and EU) has been shown to this society as an example, in other words, as a goal to be achieved. They also did their best to make our people look like themselves. For example, medicines and tools of population planning, which have been implemented in our country for years, were given to our country free of charge and our people voluntarily supported population planning, that is, the reduction of our population. On the other hand, when this Western imitation was added to migration from rural areas to cities, families began to shrink on the one hand, and our population began to age, especially due to the prevalence of healthcare services. In short, our love of Western imitation formed the basis of the news in question.
At this point, I want to transfer a memory. It was in the early 1970s, when population planning was strictly implemented, every effort was made to reduce the population, regardless of how many children our people wanted to have. The majority of women used contraceptive pills or contraceptives, and this service was provided free of charge by the state. In those days, I had received a brochure from the Ministry of Health on contraception. While I was reading the brochure, I noticed that a sentence was made unreadable by passing it over with a felt-tip pen. I scanned the brochure at the light table so I could read the scribbled sentence. I saw that the scribbled sentence stated, "Spirals used in birth control cause uterine cancer." And the leaflet carrying this scribbled information continued to be distributed. In those days, we made headlines on this incident in the newspaper I worked for in Ankara. Despite this, the application continued for a long time. The main supporter of these efforts to sterilize our population was the USA. When these incentives were combined with Western imitation widespread in our country, in other words, when Western value judgments and suggestions became almost indispensable for our people, our family structure gradually shrunk, began to return to the nuclear family structure consisting of mothers, fathers and children, and our elders started to live alone and to live alone. they had to close. As such, the children of families who inevitably disintegrated, often remained in the middle. In the family structure where grandparents were included, even if the parents were separated, the grandparents took care of the children and did not feel their orphans much. As a result, a society that was stuck between the West and the East, rolling in an uncertain set of values, came about. In other words, when the news of "Our family has shrunk" or "Young population is decreasing, our population is aging" without much thought, it may not be remembered what is at the core of the business, but questioning such news and asking "Western imitation or modernity?" It is necessary to reflect on the answer to their questions. Because our need for this question is increasing day by day.