Special to WorldTribune.com

ANKARA — Turkey has been drafting legislation to allow men to pay
rather than serve in the military.

Officials said the government of Prime Minister Recep Erdogan was working with parliament for legislation that would resolve the status of thousands of draft-dodgers. They said the bill would be presented to parliament by the end of 2011.

“This is an important, urgent issue for me,” Erdogan said on Nov. 4. “We’ll see whether we can squeeze it [onto parliament’s agenda] before the budget debate.”

In a briefing on Nov. 4, Erdogan said the Defense Ministry and military were coordinating in drafting the legislation. The prime minister said the bill would limit the age of those who could pay to avoid the draft.

Officials said the evaders, many of whom have already entered middle age, were no longer of use to the Turkish military, the second largest in NATO. They said the legislation was not meant to provide more revenue to either the government
or the military.

“There are people who are over 35, 40 and even 45,” Defense Minister
Ismet Yilmaz said. “Are we going to tear them apart from their families,
children and jobs? Some of them could be abroad anyway. So, social realities
are imposing such an arrangement.”

Yilmaz said the legislation, which does not set a payment to evade
service, could be finalized in November. He said the Defense Ministry was
working on the bill with the General Staff, which has expressed concern over
the prospect that only poor Turks would be drafted.

“I believe we will finalize work [on a draft] in the wake of the Bayram
holiday after consulting with the General Staff as well,” Yilmaz said.

  Defense Ministry, draft-dodgers, Ismet Yilmaz, Recep Erdogan, Turkey considers law allowing would-be draftees to pay instead of serving