Proving you’re gay to the Turkish army
By Emre Azizlerli
BBC World Service

Military service is mandatory for all Turkish men - they can only escape it if they are ill, disabled or homosexual. But proving homosexuality is a humiliating ordeal.

”They asked me when I first had anal intercourse, oral sex, what sort of toys I played with as a child…”

Ahmet, a young man in his 20s, told officials he was gay at the first opportunity after he was called up, as he and other conscripts underwent a health check.

“They asked me if I liked football, whether I wore woman’s clothes or used woman’s perfume,” he says.

”I had a few days’ beard and I am a masculine guy - they told me I didn’t look like a normal gay man.”

He was then asked to provide a picture of himself dressed as a woman.
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The face must be visible, and the photos must show you as the passive partner”

Gokhan Exempted from military service on grounds of homosexuality

”I refused this request,” he says. ”But I made them another offer, which they accepted.” Instead he gave them a photograph of himself kissing another man…