Description
This paper examines the right to conscientious objection in Turkey by drawing on the claim that the rise of militarisation brings about a rise of demilitarisation attempts and “militarism can be reversed.” Arguably, existing literature has hitherto focused either on the legal or on the sociological aspects of the right to conscientious objection in Turkey. As such, the impacts of social norms on the legal process remain largely neglected. However, the military is not only a war-machine but also an institution influencing society at large; therefore, the military’s workings require analysis from a sociological perspective. As a result, this paper explores the social norms reinforcing militarism and argues that antimilitarist critique of conscription requires an investigation into gender. It utilises the concepts of feminist curiosity and hegemonic masculinities. Reflecting on eighteen semi-structured interviews conducted with the conscientious objectors in Turkey, it adopts an empirical, a feminist, and an antimilitarist approach to the militarisation process. It discusses the ways the conscientious objectors challenge the sociological elements, which maintain the conscription system and ask for societal change. The narratives emerged out of the interviews illustrated the role gender plays in the normalisation of militarism and the intersection between the military, militarism, and hegemonic gender relations.
