Will my son need to join the military

Hello Zvdq Pht,

From what I have been reading, it does look like military service is compulsory for Turkish citizens, but as I do not live in Türkiye myself, I would not want to confirm this as a fact.

Hopefully, a member who has Turkish citizenship or has been through this situation can share their experience and clarify whether this would apply to your son, especially in the case of dual citizenship.

All the best,

Cheryl

Expat.com team

@Zvdq Pht

Yes if he gets citizenship he will go to army at age 18

@Zvdq Pht

Yes, under the current rules, your son may have to do military service when he turns 20. However, there are several ways to postpone it, depending on his situation.

At the same time, Turkish citizenship by investment is still a relatively new system. So it is possible that some issues concerning the children of investors have not yet been dealt with in detail.

Maybe in the future the government will look at this more closely and introduce different rules or even an exemption for male children who became Turkish citizens through the investment programme.

But I should be clear: this is only my personal view and prediction. It is not the current law.

By the way, I am a lawyer specialising in Turkish citizenship by investment. If you are seriously considering the programme for your family, feel free to message me. There are a few details that can make a difference in cases like this.

I used DuckDuckGo (A more private browser than Google) and typed the search prompt "do naturalized citizens in turkiye have military service obligation".  The search results all stated the same requirements:

You are required to serve if:

1. You are male
2. You became a Turkish citizen at the age of under 22
3. You have not previously served in the military elsewhere
4. You do not qualify for deferment or exemption

I've added the resulting sites from the search

https://advocateturkey.com/2026/03/27/t … ligations/

https://www.ensariyigitcancakmak.av.tr/ … nship-2025

https://luxurysignature.net/en/blogs/17 … ed-to-Know

So it appears that your son meets the military service obligations as the law currently states and will have to serve at age 18.  But common knowledge among expats is that in Türkiye, laws are constantly 

changing so perhaps this requirement may shift within the next 3 or 4 years before your son turns 18.

BTW, I still reside in the US but will be moving to Türkiye by November sometime. 

Good luck & cheers!!