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Young Turks with enough cash seek to skip military service

Thanks to a massive grassroots lobbying effort, the Turkish parliament will consider allowing prospective conscripts to pay their way out of military service.
A member of Turkish police special forces stands guard in Azaz, Syria January 24, 2018. REUTERS/Osman Orsal - RC1CA41F7370

If I were asked which lobbying group in Turkey is the most organized, I would without hesitation say it's an unofficial group of citizens advocating paid exemption from military service. All Turkish men above 20 years of age are obliged to serve. Those who want to be exempted, mostly university graduates, have created websites and used social media to campaign intensively for the government to reactivate paid exemption.

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) government's first such program was in 2011, when men over the age of 30 paid 30,000 Turkish lira (some $6,500) and served just 21 days in the army. In 2014, a new paid-exemption law attracted 160,000 out of 600,000 eligible candidates above 27 years old. They paid 18,000 lira (some $3,900) for exemption. Although there were several reasons for reintroducing the practice that year, the real determinant was heavy public demand by young men and their families. According to some commentators, one motivation was the money the government received, but the real reason was that crowds were piling up at recruitment offices.

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