LIVE · Rolling Coverage
By Editorial Team of TLF
Family Minister Mahinur Özdemir Göktaş told parliament that surgical procedures were carried out on men in the 1990s with social security backing.
The sources we reviewed document low vasectomy use and weak public information, but not a systematic program.
On 12 November, the Plan and Budget Committee of the Turkish Grand National Assembly reviewed the 2027 budget of the Ministry of Family and Social Services. During the session, Minister Göktaş said men had been sterilized in Turkey in the 1990s through the Social Security Institution, SGK. Opposition deputies objected, and T24 reported the exchange in full.
"Look, men were sterilized through SGK in this country. Is that normal? In the 1990s," she said, according to T24's account (translated from Turkish). She added that the procedures were not systematic but took place with SGK support, and offered to show newspaper headlines.
When opposition MPs asked whether a systematic sterilization operation had taken place, she answered "Ameliyatlar yapıldı," meaning "surgeries were carried out." Committee chair Mehmet Muş, an AKP deputy for Samsun, told the MPs to have the topic researched. The committee then approved the ministry's budget, its 2025 final accounts and the Court of Accounts reports.
The Legal Framework
Turkish law has permitted the procedure since 1983, under Law No. 2827. A healthy man over 18 may request it, and a married man needs his spouse's agreement.
What the Survey Data Show
Survey figures cited in a 1996 study in Nüfusbilim Dergisi show the share of couples using tubal ligation or vasectomy rising from 1.3 percent in 1983 to 2.9 percent in 1993. The same abstract says the option was poorly explained to the public, which left it less known than other contraceptive methods.
A later national survey points to much lower use still. The 2018 Turkish Demographic and Health Survey put the rate at 0.1 percent.
Attitudes help explain the gap. A 2017 study of married couples in Turkey found that more than 88 percent of men were unwilling to undergo a vasectomy. The authors identified cultural barriers, including the belief that contraception belongs to women.
What the Sources Do Not Show
None of the sources we reviewed documents a state or SGK-funded program that sterilized men in the 1990s. The headlines the minister offered to show did not appear in our searches.
Our tools do not index the full run of 1990s newspapers, so this gap reflects the limits of our search as much as it reflects on the claim.
The SGK as it exists today was formed in 2008 from earlier insurance funds, so any procedures from the 1990s would have fallen under those predecessor schemes.
Population Context
The debate took place alongside a wider push on family and population policy. In a December 2024 budget presentation to the same committee, the minister cited a fertility rate of 1.51 in 2023.
THE LEVANT FILES | EDITORIAL ASSESSMENT
The claim is specific and serious. It concerns the state's role in sterilizing citizens, so it needs documentation. The sources we found show that vasectomy has been legal since 1983 and stayed rare, with weak public information. They do not show the systematic program the opposition asked about. A claim of this weight needs the headlines the minister offered, the procedure records of any SGK-funded program, and a ministry response.
This report draws on T24's coverage of the committee session and on the public sources linked above. Quotes from the minister are translated from Turkish.
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