It was first proposed when I was serving. We had some bad moments then we thought this will legally affect the following generations of conscripts. That is, instead of different service terms, all conscripts will serve for 12 months. This means those, who are not college graduate and thus serving for 15 months will have a 3 months shorter period. On the other hands, the choice for those of us, college graduates, who opted to serve for 5 months will disappear. Universal service time is proposed to be 12 months. While many European countries had already discontinued mandatory military service, Turkish Army wants us to stay in barracks even more. On the one hand this is a populist decision: Making masses of non-college graduates happy by offering 3 months shorters, on the other hand, this is a strategic choice. More and more people are now college graduates and Turkish Army may have difficulties to find longer-term conscripts. Many Turkish males just go to university to have the right to serve shorter.
Interestingly enough, this proposal which has to be approved by the Parliament does not get as much reaction as I expect. This plan will give the Army a heavier hand over educated masses. The military increasingly loses its hegemonic grasp over society and this new service plan will be a tool to get some of the lost back…
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