Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday he believed that "a woman is above all else a mother", in a speech marking International Women's Day.

Erdogan has come under fire in the past for urging Turkish women to have at least three children and railing against efforts to promote birth control as "treason".

Critics have accused his government of trying to impose strict Islamic values on Turkey and curtailing women's civil liberties.

"I know there will be some who will be annoyed, but for me a woman is above all a mother," he told an audience of women in Ankara.

He criticised the capitalist system for "enslaving" women in pursuit of profits, and urged the crowd to "protect the family".

"You cannot free women by destroying the notion of family," he said in a speech peppered with verses from the Qur’an praising the virtues of motherhood.

The president - who has two sons and two daughters - has angered feminist groups by saying that women are not equal to men.

He has also made proposals to limit abortion rights, the morning-after pill and Caesarian sections.

Violence against women in Turkey - often involving wives killed by their husbands - has risen sharply in recent years and activists say nowhere near enough action has been taken to tackle the problem.