Turkey Unveils Reforms to Military Conscription

By Joe Parkinson

ISTANBUL — Turkey’s Prime Minister on Tuesday announced long-awaited reforms to military conscription, offering draftees over the age of 30 the chance to buy their way out of service and inching NATO’s second biggest army closer to becoming a professional force.

If passed by the Cabinet, the moves, announced by Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara, will allow Turkish nationals aged 30 or above to pay 30,000 liras to be exempt from military obligations and the preliminary 21-day basic training. Turks working abroad for at least three years could pay €10,000 for the same exemption with no age limit.

Recent weeks have seen heated debate between the government and opposition over the breadth of conscription changes — a touchstone issue in a country where the military is revered by the majority. Mr. Erdogan’s ruling AK party, which has won three successive elections after sweeping to power on a landslide in 2002, has consistently chipped away at the military’s one-time dominance over popularly elected governments. In August, the military’s top commanders resigned en masse in a dispute over the status of jailed officers. For decades it had worked the other way round; governments resigned when the military was unhappy.

Military service is compulsory in Turkey for all male citizens between 24 to 41 years of age with some exemptions based on education and sexual orientiation, and Turks who attempt to avoid military service can be forced to serve. But payouts to avoid obligations are not new — especially for those who lived and worked abroad for a significant period. However, Tuesday’s reforms represent the broadest change yet to Turkey’s military service obligation.

The last time Turkey introduced a paid military-service law was after two devastating earthquakes that ravaged the country’s northwest in August and November 1999. It exempted conscripts from military service in return for a payment and a basic training of four weeks.

Some analysts have argued that the moves were driven more by ideology than economic considerations; specifically the ruling AK-party’s long-held goal of creating a professionalized military. Despite Turkey’s budget deficit, its primary fiscal balances are in relatively rude health, posting a 35 billion lira ($18 billion) surplus from January to October; a 95% rise on the same period a year ago, according to the central bank.

Government ministers say that the reforms also have an economic logic — boosting the public finances and allowing larger donations to the families of soldiers killed in action and veterans’ charities. Government sources told pro-government newspaper Zaman they expected 100,000 male citizens to take advantage of the offer, raising some $1.5 billion, the newspaper said.

But political analysts say the measures would likely raise a significantly lower amount than government forecasts.

Government ministers have stressed that conscription reforms would be motivated by “social realities” rather than financial pressure. Turkey’s economy is forecast to grow between 7% and 8% this year, after a 9% expansion in 2010, with little sign yet of any rapid slowdown. That growth has also brought some problems, with booming domestic demand propelling a current-account deficit forecast to top 9% of gross domestic product this year, leaving the economy exposed to external shocks.

via Turkey Unveils Reforms to Military Conscription – Emerging Europe Real Time – WSJ.