The search for a bride: Emergency rooms, courthouses or immigration camps?

Really, what is the Justice and Development Party's (AKP) obsession with marriage?

After former Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu promised that he would help provide spouses to the unwed men in southeastern Şanlıurfa (a promise that was unfulfilled when he bowed out of politics), his successor, Binali Yıldırım, pointed out that hospital emergency rooms have become places to find spouses. 

"A friend mentioned it and it caught my attention. Citizens are visiting emergency services on holidays. Do you know why? Not to get medical treatment, but to look for girls [meaning potential wives]," Yıldırım told his AKP party group. "The hospitals are so cute now that they are going to hospitals to match their sons and daughters… So it means that emergency services not only cure but also serve to help starting a family. This is the point we have reached."

I called up my friend, a gorgeous blonde in her early 40s with a brilliant career and a quick tongue. "Meet me at the hairdresser," I told her. "We'll do the whole works - hair, mani-pedi and waxing. Then we are going to the emergency rooms of various hospitals."

My friend has had the glorious existence of the ultimate single girl since her divorce a decade ago. Looks, brains and a good career; she worked hard, played hard and traveled around, much to the envy of all of us. Lately, however, she began to feel "unfilled" and "half" because she had no children. Now, I wonder where that came from - was it something someone said?

"I am already on my way," she told me. "The thing is, you need to choose the hospital carefully. You do not want to meet the wrong type of potential spouse and in-laws. My mother, who has acquired a lot of experience through watching matchmaking programs every...