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I'm a Turkish citizen who is studying in Germany for the last 5 years. As you might not know, in Turkey, there is compulsory military service for every men. But, I don't want to do it (I don't even want to be physically present in a Turkish soil). There is also the option of paying ~6000Euros and just doing your military service for 3weeks, but I don't want to do it either; I don't have that much money for that kind of thing.

Now, I want to become a German citizen by naturalisation, but Germany doesn't allow me to have dual citizenship unless I have no other options.

To do that, I want to renounce my Turkish citizenship but the government will be asking me to do my military service in a couple of months and I have no other excuse to give them, so I'll be a deserter, and the Turkish government doesn't allow anyone to renounce their citizenship if they deserted from their military service. So, long story short, there is no way I can renounce my Turkish citizenship.

My question is, in 3 years, I'll be able to apply for a German citizenship but I won't be be able to renounce my Turkish citizenship (due to being a deserter). Will the German goverment recognise my situation allow me to apply for a German citizenship? Have there been similar cases before? If so, what was their result?

Note that, criminals are not allowed to apply for a German citizenship, so I don't know whether the German government would consider being a deserter as a being criminal.

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  • Note: this question was originally asked at law, since this is matter about Nationality law and contains useful comments: law.stackexchange.com/q/56911/25602
    – Mark Johnson
    Commented Oct 6, 2020 at 9:22
  • I don't have a quote for that, but as far as Germany is concerned, "renounce" only means you renounce it. Whether your country of origin accepts that, is beyond your ability and beyond Germany's interest level. There are countries that disallow citizens to renounce their citizenship as a matter of principle, they can still become German citizens.
    – nvoigt
    Commented Oct 6, 2020 at 13:46
  • @nvoigt does this mean, if the OP renounces its Turkish citizenship, s/he can apply for a stateless passport within Germany even though his/her Turkish passport is still considered valid by Turkish government? If Germany only cares about the act of renounciation by the OP, his/her Turkish passport should be considered invalid by the German goverment upo doing so, isn't it?
    – Our
    Commented Oct 6, 2020 at 20:50
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    @nvoigt The intention to 'renounce' alone is not sufficient. It must be given up (taken place). §10 (1)(4) Nationality Act: gives up or loses his or her previous citizenship,. §12 allows for exceptions where giving it up is not possible, difficult or leads to great disadvantages.
    – Mark Johnson
    Commented Oct 6, 2020 at 22:23

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I only have a few notes for you but it's too long to be a comment.

  1. https://web.archive.org/web/20080219161537/http://www.asal.msb.gov.tr/er_islemleri/yurtdisiislemleri_2.htm

38 yaş sınırı içinde bulunanların 5.112 Euro veya karşılığı yabancı ülke parasını, başvuru tarihinden itibaren 38 yaşlarını doldurdukları yılın sonuna kadar peşin veya en çok dört eşit taksitte ödemeleri,

I do not speak Turkish but my SIL does and she says this means you can pay in four installments between now and when you turn 38. Maybe call the embassy and ask about installment payments.

  1. The Dutch government has a page on the topic https://www.government.nl/topics/dutch-nationality/question-and-answer/can-i-renounce-my-turkish-nationality-if-i-haven-t-completed-my-compulsory-military-service which might be useful

  2. Should you want to attempt an asylum claim the UK government https://www.justice.gov/eoir/page/file/1102046/download has a long text on it, which is going to be relevant for Germany as well because both the convention and the EU rules are supranatural so it's not likely the German authorities would have significantly different opinion on the topics herein.

No matter what, I would extremely strongly recommend not breaking the law. You will find you have a lot more options if you deal with this before you become a deserter. Perhaps finding a lawyer familiar with this would be helpful, maybe https://www.tgd.de/ could recommend one?

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