7 Out of Every 10 People Support Right of Alimony

"Our right of alimony cannot be seized"

Click to read the article in Turkish

The KONDA Research and Consultancy company has released its Report on Alimony for 2020. The report elaborates on the right of alimony, the relevant laws and recent debates under the chapter "The Right of Alimony."

Briefly touching on the demographic differences between men and women in Turkey under its first chapter on marriage, divorce and alimony data, the report also shares the recent figures on marriage and divorce shared by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat).

In preparing this report, the company made face-to-face surveys with 3,594 people older than 15 in 29 provinces across Turkey.

While 67 percent of the participants have at least one child, 41 percent still have a child or children under the age of 18.

The findings of the report show that 72 percent of the society, or three out of every four people in Turkey, say that they take divorce normally when the partners cannot get along with each other.

'Society takes divorce normally'

Some highlights from the report are as follows:

* While 74 percent of women who participated in the survey take divorce normally, this rate is 70 percent in men. Based on survey results, the company infers that the older the participants get, the more negative their attitude to divorce gets. That is, while 76 percent of those in 18-32 age group say that they find divorce normal, this rate falls to 72 percent in 33-48 age group and to 69 percent among the ones 49 years and older.

* The report also puts forward that there is a positive correlation between the educational level of a participant and the positivity of her/his attitude towards divorce. While 65 percent of the ones with a lower education level than high school find divorce normal, this rate increases to 78 percent among high school graduates and to 84 percent among university graduates.

* The company handles child support and (poverty-related) alimony separately. As part of this research, participants were read the sentence "It needs to be guaranteed by law that the father pays alimony after divorce until the child becomes an adult". 82 percent of the participants agree with this sentence and express support for child support.

* The participants' support for (poverty-related) alimony is similarly high: When the participants were read the sentence "The ex-husband of a woman should pay alimony to her ex-wife so long as she is in need." 76 percent of participants say that they either agree or totally agree with this sentence.

* Regardless of the gender, age, education level, marital status, birthplace or having a child or not, all segments of the society support child support in high percentages. There is also a similar support for (poverty-related) alimony from all segments of the society.

* The rate of those who express support for both alimony and child support (who say "I agree" or "I totally agree") is 70 percent. In other words, seven out of every 10 people have quite a clear attitude towards alimony.

* Based on the above findings and figures, the company concludes that there is no social resistance against divorce, coupled with a strong belief that women should be supported for alimony. (EMK/SD)

** Click here for the full report (in Turkish)