Turkish state broadcaster pulls anchor following on-air ‘fur mom’ remarks

A TRT presenter who called herself a ‘fur mom’ during live broadcast reportedly loses job at public broadcaster local media reported Monday.

This incident occurs amid an ongoing debate over the language used to describe motherhood. The debate over motherhood and family roles is closely linked to concerns about Turkey’s declining birth rate.

Authorities and conservative groups in Turkey have expressed concern over the population decline, arguing that women choosing to own a pet rather than marry or become a mother are contributing to the population decline.

Isil Acikkar presented the main evening bulletin on TRT 1 on May 10, which coincides with Mother’s Day in Türkiye. At the end of the show, she made a personal statement to viewers.

She said God had not yet blessed her with a human child, but she had found purpose in caring for animals. “I’m a fur mom too,” she told the camera.

His remark quickly spread across social media, sparking criticism from users who objected to his choice of words.

Local media later reported that TRT management removed Acikkar from the bulletin and launched an internal administrative investigation.

TRT has not made any official statement. Acikkar also did not respond publicly.

The ad that came first

The timing placed Acikkar’s remarks in a controversy that had already been going on for several days.

The previous week, German appliance manufacturer Bosch had released a Advertising for Mother’s Day in Türkiye, which was built around deliberate misdirection.

Two women meet in a store and discuss the daily demands of caring for someone at home. Nothing in the exchange clarifies what type of relationship they are describing. The commercial ends when one of the women arrives home and a dog greets her at the door.

Bosch withdrew the campaign after a backlash that reached government level. The Ministry of Family and Social Services declared that motherhood was not a means of communication.

The Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTUK) opened a formal investigation and issued a statement setting out the official position in explicit terms:

“The fundamental elements of the family structure are defined in article 41 of our Constitution: the mother, the father and the child. Any positioning outside the founding elements of the family is a narrative contrary to the normal course of life. This approach does not correctly represent the love for animals nor does it give motherhood the value it deserves.”

This statement was still circulating at the time Acikkar spoke. His words landed on already cleared and contested ground.

Isil Acikkar, a presenter on Turkish public television channel TRT, has been fired for her “fur mom” comments. (Photo screenshot from TRT)

Changing terrain

What gives these incidents their magnitude is not only cultural sensitivity, but also the fact that they occur alongside a set of demographic changes that have become a persistent source of political concern.

Figures from TurkStat show that the number of women marrying for the first time is declining and that when they do, they are older. The average age at first marriage for women reached 26 years in the most recent data, compared to 28.5 years on average for men.

The fertility rate rises to 1.48 children per woman in 2024, compared to the 2.10 generally considered necessary for a population to be able to maintain itself without migration. Between 2024 and 2025, the number of registered marriages increased from around 570,000 to 552,000, while divorces increased from around 189,000 to 194,000.

This shift attracted sustained attention from Turkey’s political leaders, who viewed family formation as a matter of national concern rather than individual circumstance.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s statement on a “Decade of Population and Family” set the tone, and RTUK’s statement on the Bosch ad directly reflects this.

A material question

Behind the debate on values ​​lies a set of more concrete pressures.

Turkey’s net minimum wage in 2026 is around 28,000 lira, or about $620 per month.

Published research in April 2026, the Confederation of Turkish Trade Unions set the monthly food poverty threshold for a family of four at almost 35,000 lira, which is already above the full minimum wage before rent, utilities or childcare are taken into account.

Average monthly rents on Turkey reached around 26,000 lira during the same period, while Istanbul reached an average of around 40,000 lira.

For a significant part of the workforce, the question of whether or not to have children cannot be separated from questions of housing, income and basic costs.

When public figures and regulators present delaying or forgoing parenthood as a cultural failure, they are often describing choices made under material constraints.

An AI-generated split image shows a woman cradling a newborn in one panel and a small dog in the other. (AI-generated photo)

Closer than the debate suggests

The specific link mentioned by Acikkar – and which the Bosch ad placed on screen – is not without scientific basis.

Neuroscience research has shown that caring for animals and caring for children share overlapping brain activity, although attachment is different in degree but not entirely in kind.

Images of children produced stronger responses in regions related to language and social cognition, a difference the researchers attributed to the demands of raising a human being. But there was no shortage of responses to the dogs.

This result does not resolve the political dispute. This suggests that the attachment that Acikkar describes and that Bosch chose to advertise reflects something that a significant portion of his audience already experiences.

Acikkar’s alleged dismissal has not been confirmed by TRT, and no official explanation has been offered for any change in his duties.

This silence allowed the episode to function as an extension of the same argument launched by the Bosch ad: not simply about animals, but about which relationships are allowed to borrow the vocabulary of family, and who has the authority to answer that question.

May 11, 2026 3:32 p.m. GMT+03:00