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I'm a Turkish citizen who has been studying in Germany for the last 5 years. As one might not know, in Turkey, there is compulsory military service for every man. But, I don't want to do it (I don't want to be physically present on Turkish soil). There is also the option of paying ~€6000 and just doing your military service for 3 weeks, but I don't want to do it either.

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

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

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1 Answers1

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

First of all, they would deny a criminal German citizenry, but that goes only for crimes, that are also illegal in Germany (Sec. 12a § 2 Nationality Act, § 12a Abs. 2 StAG). Were you - for instance - convicted for murder you couldn't become a German citizen. Desertion in that sense however is not a criminal offence in Germany, so you're good.

Regarding double citizenship, Sec. 12 § 1 2nd sentence no. 2 Nationality Act (§ 12 Abs. 1 S. 2 Nr. 2 StAG) allows you to keep your original citizenship if the country of origin "regularly refuses to grant release from citizenship", which should be the case here. Therefore, you could become a German citizen according to Sec. 10 Nationality Act (§ 10 StAG).

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