Αντιγράφω από την ιστοσελίδα της Hürriyet Daily News
Health minister again challenges colleague, this time on gays.Μπορείτε επίσης να διαβάσετε από την ιστοσελίδα της τουρκικής λοαδ οργάνωσης KAOS GL:
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
ANKARA — Hürriyet Daily News
Health Minister Recep Akdağ, who earlier came to attention for his public disagreements with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan over the swine flu vaccination campaign, has clashed this time with his family affairs colleague over homosexuality
Contradictory statements on homosexuality from two members of the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, have revealed a crack in the government’s attitude toward the matter.
Turkey’s Health Minister Recep Akdağ said Wednesday the issue should be handled within the scope of individual freedoms, suggesting a different approach than his colleague State Minister Selma Aliye Kavaf, who is responsible for women’s and family affairs.
Kavaf said last week that homosexuality is a biological disorder and a disease that needs treatment. “Therefore, I do not have a positive opinion of gay marriage,” she said in an interview with the daily Hürriyet in a supplement this past Sunday. Kavaf also said her ministry does not have an agenda for gay marriage and that there is no demand for such a motion.
Appearing more open on the issue, Akdağ said, “The cultural and family structure of Turkey creates more difficulties for homosexuals and society should be more tolerant in handling the issue.”
Akdağ also highlighted the importance of appropriate sexual education for children that will help them develop their sexual identity.
Akdağ again challenging colleagues
Akdağ’s recent opposition to Kavaf’s remarks was reminiscent of an earlier outburst during the vaccination campaign for the H1N1 virus, or swine flu, in which he quarreled with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on the issue.
The health minister had made insistent calls for citizens to acquire vaccinations against the swine flu in November, during which time fatalities were visibly increasing.
Although Akdağ received the injection in front of cameras, Erdoğan publicly chided his minister for his insistent vaccine calls, arguing that the medicine should not be optional and not compulsory.
Erdoğan subsequently said he would not receive the vaccination.
Erdoğan’s declaration inflamed an already-heated political and medical debate as politicians and health authorities remained divided over the effectiveness of the vaccine.
Erdoğan’s stance also raised public concerns about the reliability of the vaccine, while opposition parties criticized the health minister for failing to persuade the prime minister to accept the vaccine.
The November exchanges signaled a change in the Akdağ’s public persona, who, until that point, had been known as a technocrat rather than a politician.
Akdağ was again brought to the public’s attention for his self-critical remarks on the plight of state hospitals after a Monday earthquake hit villages in the eastern Turkish province of Elazığ, killing 41 people and destroying many stone and mud-brick buildings.
The minister said Tuesday in a televised interview that it was impossible to say whether all hospital buildings in Turkey were strong enough to sustain an earthquake.
- Goverment says no gays in our families.
- Rights groups slam murders of transsexual in Turkey.
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