Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Students forced to paid military service

The news portal Bianet reports that according to a letter sent by the Ministry of Defense to The Council of Higher Education (YÖK), which has then been conveyed to universities, male students completing 29 years of age have two options in order to enroll or to re-enroll in a school: joining the army for 15 months or paying 15.000 TL as the first installments of the paid military service and getting the related document.

The letter sent by Ministry of Defense relies on the Law No. 1111, Military Law, Article 35/C which exists since 21.06.1927. However, this law was not applied for years and there were no obstacles for men over the age 29 during the enrollment process. Currently, there are approximately 250 students facing this situation in Middle Eastern Technical University (METU) while the number goes up to 450 students at Yildiz University.

To read the rest of the news report in English, please visit Bianet.