Why are Turkish men paying out of their noses to be exempt from military service?

I was in Israel last week, where I saw a picture of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his wife posing with their youngest son, who is about to be conscripted into the Israeli army. Israel has mandatory military service and, as the photo shows, there are no exemptions. Even young women serve. I was there with a Singaporean, who told me that Singapore also had a so-called “National Service.” As the name suggests, “everybody has to do it. There are no exemptions, not even for the president’s son.”

Turkey is cut of a different cloth. Yes, we also have compulsory military service, but you can buy yourself out during certain windows of time. People who can afford it simply bide their time until such an opportunity arises. Just this week, the government announced a new law allowing a certain age group to buy its way out of national service. It’s a discretionary practice requiring approval from Parliament. This year’s law seems to be a fire sale – both the price and age restriction this year are lower than the last.

Why do young Turkish men hate conscription? There was a massive social media campaign just before the exemption law. People were saying that there were 810,000 men who were called up, but refused to go. That is not a trivial matter. There is even a civic association campaigning for exemption for the conscripts. Are they all objecting conscription on moral or religious grounds? Not really. Most young people will tell you they would simply like to do other things with their lives. What is interesting here is that national service is only for nine months in Turkey, compared to the three-year service of Israel (women serve two years) and the two-year service of Singapore. Ours really isn’t that much, yet young people are...