Turkey: Polygamous man 'aims for 50 children'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-29847485

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A Turkish man who has 32 children with four different wives has said he is aiming for 50, it's reported.

Polygamy is illegal in Turkey, but Halit Tekin has unofficially married three women since tying the knot with his first wife - legally - in 1982, the Hurriyet Daily News website reports. Mr Tekin, 54, who lives in Turkey's southern Hatay province, recently welcomed a baby boy named Ahmet with his first wife. "Today, I have 32 kids and 12 of them are boys. I love them all. If my health permits, God willing, I want to raise the number to 50," he says. The wives all live in different houses with their children "as we cannot fit in a single house", he says, adding that everyone gets along "quite well". Despite being outlawed, a 2013 study by Turkey's parliament found that 372,000 men practised polygamy in the country, the website reports.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan regularly called for families to have at least three children when he was prime minister, in order to keep the country strong. "One or two children mean bankruptcy... at least three children are necessary in each family, because our population risks ageing," he said in 2013.

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