Publications
If collecting kids was an Olympic sport, these two would be on track for a gold medal.
Christina Ozturk and her husband, Galip, welcomed their first child together, a boy they named Mustafa, in March last year. In April Maryam was born and two days later twins Alice and Airin followed.
Four months later Mekhmet arrived and in November came Lokman. Little Olivia is the most recent arrival, born in January.
No, the mom is not a freak of nature: these babies were born to surrogates. Christina and Galip, who live in Georgia near Russia, are so addicted to having kids they want at least 100. The couple are already parents to 11 little ones but want to expand their brood by 89, using surrogates they pay from their deep pockets.
Christina was pregnant once and although she’s young and healthy, she has no desire to carry any more children again. The 23-year-old gave birth to daughter Vika six years ago, before meeting her millionaire husband.
Shortly after falling in love and tying the knot, she and Galip (56) welcomed 10 more babies via surrogates within the space of 10 months – and a round century of kids is now the dream.
But time might not be on their side. With a 33-year gap between them, Christina and Galip will need to have their babies within the next few years if they want the kids genetically to be their own. Male fertility generally starts to dwindle around the age of 40, when sperm quality decreases, which reduces the overall chances of pregnancy.
If Christina wants to approach her goal of 100 babies by the time she turns 30, she’ll have to have around 12 kids a year for the next seven years.
It’s a challenge the Ozturks are determined to see through, especially since money is no object.
Galip is a wealthy businessman, well-known in his native Turkey. But he’s not without controversy.
He acquired his wealth through the success of his travel and tourism company but since 2003 has been linked to dodgy deals.
In 2009 he was arrested for manipulating the Istanbul Stock Exchange but was later released pending trial. Three years later he was sentenced to life imprisonment for instigating the murder of an employee back in 1996.
On the day of his sentencing in 2013, Galip fled to the country of Georgia, where he met Christina and has been living there since.
Now the businessman has shifted his attention to making a success of his personal life.
Galip and Christina met in the seaside town of Batumi in Georgia, often referred to as the Las Vegas of the Black Sea.
Christina, originally from Moscow, was on holiday when she clapped eyes on her husband-to-be. The couple say it was love at first sight and Christina and Vika soon relocated to Georgia to be with Galip.
The couple agreed they wanted as many children as possible, despite Galip being a father to eight adult children from a previous marriage.
They originally planned to have a baby every year but quickly realised Christina’s body wouldn’t cope.
So they turned to surrogates, which costs them around R143 000 per pregnancy.
“We are not personally acquainted with surrogate mothers and do not have direct contacts with them in order to avoid problems after pregnancy.”
One thing she is involved in, however, is what the women eat. Christina creates diet and nutrition plans for each of the surrogates.
“All communication takes place through the clinic. We only monitor health indicators,” Christina says. “I make up a dietary menu for mothers so that the food is complete [and] I look at the test results.”
She says the births weren’t without hiccups. One of the mothers wanted to keep the baby after it was born but because Christina and Galip’s genetics were used so the surrogate had no rights and had to hand the child over.
The mother-of-11 says people assume she has an army of nannies helping her but that isn’t the case. She does most of the day-to-day childcare herself and spends as much time with her babies as she can. Little Vika also loves helping her mother care for her siblings.
Christina also has strict requirements when employing nannies.
READ MORE| This couple wanted only one more baby - instead they got five!
“I teach each nanny independently. The upbringing of children is strictly according to my instructions.”
These include what to read to the children, in which order, at what time and for how long.
She only feeds her children homemade meals and each meal is strictly measured.
“Food is strictly according to grams – not a gram more, not a gram less.”
Nannies are required to take a picture of each baby’s dirty nappy so that Christina can determine whether the contents are “of a good colour and consistency”.
“Each child has a diary that records all the details of his life – what we ate, how much we ate, how I slept, how I walked, how many went to the toilet, how many were crying, what changes happened with the body.”
Her kids have been trained to sleep from 8pm to 6am, she says. Once they’re asleep, Christina does household chores, plans menus and schedules health appointments.
Although the Ozturk family have fallen into a rhythm, Christina admits raising this many children at once is challenging.
Which is why she and Galip have decided to put their surrogacy on hold until the current crop of little ones is older.
“It’s not practical at the moment with so many young children,” Christina says.
We can’t help but wonder – will there ever be a right moment?
SOURCES: AHVALNEWS.COM, DAILYMAIL.CO.UK, MIRROR.CO.UK
