germany military
Can&#39;t renounce my citizenship due to being a deserter; can I apply for German citizenship?
<p>I'm a Turkish citizen who is studying in Germany for the last 5 years. As one might not know, in Turkey, there is compulsory military service for every men. 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 3weeks, but I don't want to do it either; I don't have that much money for that kind of thing.</p>
<p>Now, I want to become a German citizen by naturalisation, but Germany doesn't allow me to have dual citizenship <em>unless I have no other options</em>.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p><strong>My question is</strong>, 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 government recognise my situation and allow me to apply for German citizenship? Have there been similar cases before? If so, what was their result?</p>
<p>Note that, <em>criminals</em> 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.</p>

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<p>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.</p>
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<p>First of all, they would deny a criminal German citizenry, but that goes only for crimes, that are also illegal in Germany (<a href="https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/englisch_stag/englisch_stag.html#p0089" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Sec. 12a § 2 Nationality Act</a>, <a href="https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/stag/__12a.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">§ 12a Abs. 2 StAG</a>). Were you - for instance - convicted for muder you couldn't become a German citizen. Desertion in that sense however is not a criminal offence in Germany, so you're good.</p>
<p>Regarding double citizenship, <a href="https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/englisch_stag/englisch_stag.html#p0079" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Sec. 12 § 1 2nd sentence no. 2 Nationality Act</a> (<a href="https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/stag/__12.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">§ 12 Abs. 1 S. 2 Nr. 2 StAG</a>) allows you to keep your original citizenship, if the country of origin &quot;regularly refuses to grant release from citizenship&quot;, which should be the case here. Therefore, you could become a German citizen according to <a href="https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/englisch_stag/englisch_stag.html#p0054" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Sec. 10 Nationality Act</a> (<a href="https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/stag/__10.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">§ 10 StAG</a>).</p>
