Thank you, but most of your comments are not really a response to my post, despite quoting it. My post was simple: Turkey doesn't seem to need such a large (and thus expensive) Navy, whilst it does need a very large Army and Airforce. Whoever disagreed with me, I've asked to prove their point. So far, no one was able to. No one in the region: Greece, Cyprus, Syria, Israel, Bulgaria, Georgia, or anyone else, except Ukraine and Russia, have a large enough Navy to even challenge Turkey. In fact, Turkish Navy is twice large than the combined Greek/Cypriot, or the Israeli Navy.
Now, regarding your theory behind conscription - to have a "trained population that can be re-trained and re-instated shortly" - sounds great. In theory. And it's what is used as an argument by all governments that have conscription. Although I am all for conscription - and did not question or debate it - at the same time I have to ask you to be more scrupulous in your research and prognosis. Because if you think that 3 weeks, or 5 months, or 1 year, or even 1.5 years of military training lasts, you are seriously overestimating it. That's why Israel and Switzerland, both of which have very powerful militaries despite their tiny size, have a different model: where citizens are periodically called up throughout their young adulthood, every 3 years or so, to undergo a few weeks of "refresher" courses in the military reserve. Oh, and let's not forget that Israelis have to serve for three (3) years, not a paltry one (1) year during which you can barely learn much, especially if you are from a rural area and have only minimum education and literacy level. In 3 years you can become a very fine soldier - even a special forces one. But in 1 year, or even 1.5 years - not possible unless you are some extraordinarily gifted, physically and intellectually, person (that's less than 1% of the population).
Second, please don't compare Turkey to Israel or Russia. It is really unnecessary. Compare it to Iran, Saudi Arabia, Greece, any European country except France and UK. After 5 years to Israel. In 20 years, maybe, to Russia.
Not withstanding that Israel and Russia have nuclear bombs, and it would take them only a few minutes to destroy 90%+ of Turkey, they also have *real* domestic military production that is not dependent on foreign parts and expertise (and they are producing now, not tomorrow), and have powerful abilities to deliver massive non-nuclear explosives - whether by airforce (e.g., Tu-160), or ballistic missiles (Topol-M), Navy (Bulava), torpedoes (Gabriel V), or just plain Smerch-M, Tochka-U, and Iskander-M. Turkey's counterstrike would be intercepted with at least 80% probability by S-400/S-300PMU2, GreenPine/Barak, and similar. Thus, while the Turkish people would win any war if anyone invades them, at the same time we have to be realistic, and keep in mind that Turkish army would be nearly destroyed in the process. And that Turkey cannot conduct offensive operations either against Israel or against Russia, now and in the next 5 years at least.
Anyways, this is not the point - the point is that Turkey needs to upgrade and update its Airforce and Land Forces while maintaining their size (in case of Air Force - expanding it), and in case of Navy - also update and upgrade, but cut it in half, as it simply can't afford to spend so much on expensive and unnecessary toys like so many frigates and submarines.
If you served once - that more than enough
So how many times did they allow you to do live shooting while serving, and over what period - did you serve 5 months or 1 year?