Turkey's president has attacked the Eurovision Song Contest, accusing the annual event of promoting "gender neutralization". and threatens the traditional family, reported the Associated Press, quoted by BTA.
In a speech delivered after a cabinet meeting, Recep Tayyip Erdogan described the contestants as "Trojan horses of social corruption" and said that his government had the right to keep Turkey out of the pan-European pop contest since 2012.
This was an obvious reference to Swiss singer Nemo, who earlier this month won the 68th Eurovision Song Contest with "The Code" - a pop-rap ode to the singer's journey to embracing a non-binary identity. The 24-year-old singer became the first non-binary winner of the contest, which has long been embraced as a haven by the LGBTQ community.
"It has become impossible to meet a normal person at such events," said Erdogan, whose ruling Justice and Development Party finds its roots in Turkey's Islamic movement and whose government has become less tolerant of LGBTQ rights in recent years.
"We better understand how we made the right decision by keeping Turkey out of this disgraceful competition for the last 12 years," he said.
On Monday, Erdogan also denounced Turkey's severe decline in birth rates as an "existential threat" and "disaster" for the country.