In the early 2000s, Turkey was a country in full demographic transition. Fertility rates had dropped to replacement level and were heading toward the lower levels of Southern Europe and Iran. Unexpectedly, Turkey has been able to stop, and in some areas even reverse, this trend in subsequent years, also recording an increase in marriage rates. A newly published paper asserts that politics, and in particular the Islamist AKP party, played a decisive role in this reversal, through the provision of local welfare policies directed to families.