![\"Turkey_army_new_regulation_discriminates_gays\"](\"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/Turkey_army_new_regulation_discriminates_gays.jpg\")
<\/p>\nTurkish military is set to adopt a \u2018Don\u2019t ask Don\u2019t tell\u2019 policy<\/p>\n
10 February 2013 | By Dan Littauer<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Turkish military is set to adopt a \u2018Don\u2019t as Don\u2019t tell\u2019 policy – which will expel out gay soldiers<\/p>\n
The Turkish Armed Forces is set to introduce a new regulation that essentially states to gay soldiers: \u2018If you come out \u2013 you\u2019ll be expelled, if you stay in the closet \u2013 we\u2019ll do nothing\u2019.<\/p>\n
The old articles of \u2018unnatural intercourse\u2019 and \u2018psychosexual disorders\u2019 as reasons to dismiss a soldier from the army, are to be replaced with a new criteria: \u2018sexual identity and behavioral patterns should be dominant and apparent in every part of life\u2019.<\/p>\n
According to Ali Erol from Turkey\u2019s main LGBT organization, Kaos GL, any soldier who is out in the army will thus be expelled after a military \u2018medical report\u2019 is submitted and approved by the Turkish Ministry of National Defence that establishes the criteria above.<\/p>\n
Turkish LGBT association have sharply criticized the new regulation, labelling it discriminatory and a violation of human rights.<\/p>\n
Erol told the H\u00fcrriyet Daily News yesterday: \u2018When it is the case of mandatory military service, a gay person is considered sick and held exempt from military service.<\/p>\n
\u2018The military defines homosexuality as a psychosexual disorder. But when a member of the military staff is homosexual, he is considered guilty of a disciplinary crime.<\/p>\n
\u2018This is discrimination on a double scale\u2019.<\/p>\n
Erol also said the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) had decided against Turkey\u2019s discriminatory practices previously and if this new regulation was enacted to prevent further lawsuits, it would fail.<\/p>\n
\u2018The ECHR ruling is clear. A person\u2019s sexual orientation cannot be considered nor treated as a crime, and any practice that suggests this would be labeled as sexual orientation discrimination. This term is not referred to in our legal framework, unfortunately; it is acknowledged by the EHCR and any future lawsuit about the practice will be treated as before\u2019, he said.<\/p>\n
In Turkey, compulsory military service applies to all male Turkish citizens between the ages of 18 and 41.<\/p>\n
LGBT people who wish to be conscientious objectors to military service must instead identify themselves as \u2018sick\u2019 \u2013 and are forced to undergo what Human Rights Watch calls \u2018humiliating and degrading\u2019 examinations to \u2018prove\u2019 their homosexuality.<\/p>\n
In October 2009 the report of the EU Commission on enlargement stated blasted the Turkish Army’s anti-gay and trans policy.<\/p>\n
On 26 April 2012, 22 Members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe have expressed concern about the degrading treatment applied to gays and trans women by excluding them from service in the Turkish Armed Forces, and called for this practice to be halted.<\/p>\n
It seems that the Turkish government has ignored both the letter and the report.<\/p>\n
via Turkey to expel out gay soldiers | Gay Star News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Turkish military is set to adopt a \u2018Don\u2019t ask Don\u2019t tell\u2019 policy 10 February 2013 | By Dan Littauer Turkish military is set to adopt a \u2018Don\u2019t as Don\u2019t tell\u2019 policy – which will expel out gay soldiers The Turkish Armed Forces is set to introduce a new regulation that essentially states to gay soldiers: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":65608,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[89],"tags":[1871,4712],"class_list":["post-65606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-turkey","tag-discrimination","tag-gays-serving-in-military"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65606\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}