Whenever we take a glance at the news, we see that Turkish people have been talking about economic problems and the death of soldiers over the last five years. Nowadays the government is thinking to start a new system for military service and discussing whether paid military service is necessary or not. These discussions have turned into a big problem since the public have been divided into two groups: Whereas one group claims that military service must not be optional because that is a sacred mission, the other group mentions that paid military service is possible under certain conditions. They suggest that the military service should be facultative. I agree with the latter, in that both the government will be able to make extra money from it and the public will feel more pleased in certain ways.
Nowadays, it is obvious that the government needs a lot of money to raise its wealth level. When paid military service starts, the government can earn a lot of money so they can make further investment with that revenue. In addition, the capacity of the army is almost full so this shows us that the state does not need to recruit new soldiers. Also, having soldiers more than needed increases the state’s expenditure since these soldiers must be housed, fed, and clothed for months. This issue poses a risk for the state’s financial status. In order to overcome such a problem, the government will have the opportunity to decrease the number of soldiers by applying paid military service system.
Further, in our moder age, whatever one does, he has to do it professionally and effectively. From this point of view, it is a fact that professional soldiers are better than amateur ones. As in Turkey, military service is not something to learn within 12 months. Actually, it requires discipline, agility and submissiveness. In other words, trying to learn these three things within 12 months for amateur soldiers is definitely inefficient.
Lastly, some young people are not pleased with the compulsory military service since it hinders their educational or business life. They are of the opinion that military service should be made more flexible or feasible for them via paid military service system. Thus, they will be able to perform their basic military service for a short time and their career will not be affected adversely. In short, paid military service will make some young people much happier since military service will not be an application interrupting their career.
To sum up, there could be different opinions about whether or not paid military service is necessary. I strongly believe that paid military service is necessary for the Turkish Republic and our state no longer needs to use the old military system.