Conscription in Turkey

In Turkey, compulsory military service applies to all male citizens from twenty to forty-one years of age. Those who are engaged in higher education or vocational training programs prior to their military drafting are allowed to delay service until they have completed the programs or reach a certain age. The duration of the basic military service varies: for those without 4-year university degrees twelve months as privates; for those with 4-year university degrees or higher either twelve months as reserve officers or six months as short-term privates.

Turkish citizens who reside outside Turkey and have worked for at least three consecutive years have the option to pay a certain fee to be exempt from mandatory military service. This requires a fee of 7,711 EUR and a basic military training of twenty-one days prior to the new law that went into effect on 15 December 2011.

Women are not conscripted. However, they are permitted to become officers.

The Conscription Law was introduced in 1919 and has stayed in force since then. However, the length of service has been successively reduced over time. Between 1919 and 1998, the normal length of service was 18 months for non-educated males and 12 months for educated (University Level.) In 1998, these lengths were reduced to 12 months for non-educated conscripts and 6 months for educated ones. After 2001, the current length of service was introduced, with a bar on further reductions until 2024.

Male citizens after serving their compulsory service are obligated to be recalled up to military service until they are 46 years of age. After males are recalled up, the Turkish parliament can declare that the state is in a critical condition which makes women from ages 18 to 42 are obligated to serve. Teens and young adults may be pulled out of high school from the ages as young as 15. However, kids who are younger and can pass as 15 can get their ages changed in court to be conscripted, trained and sent to war which was common during Turkey's war of independence.

Yusuf Ziya Özcan, president of YÖK, announced in March 2008 military service duration would be equal for everyone, holding or not holding a degree would not matter. İlker Başbuğ, then president of Turkish Armed Forces, said that short term military service and reserve officers system would be abandoned. In this system he proposed, everybody would spend 12 or 15 months in conscription. Instead of reserve officers, officers would be contracted. In October 2010, instead of the system proposed before, shortening the duration of military service is proposed. In this proposition, short-term privates would spend 4 months and other people would spend 9 months in conscription. Conscripted 250000 people would be released early. TSK, refused this system claiming it would create a shortage of soldiers. However, some people argue conscripts are forced to work for officers' private needs. This includes driving, cooking, hairdressing and serving meals in officers' clubs, teaching to officers' children. Some of the conscripts are made officers' personal assistants. Number of these conscripts are estimated to be 231,000.

...
Wikipedia