This new law lowered the conscription age from 20 to 18 and abolished the “redif” (reserve system). Active duty lengths were set at 2 years for the infantry, 3 years for other branches of the Army and 5 years for the Navy. These measures remained largely theoretical during World War I. The Ottoman Empire in 1914 could only draft 70,000 or about 35 per cent of the relevant population.