…During WWII
"2 years ago, from April 1941 to July 1942, Jewish, Armenian, Greek, and Assyrian/Syriac men in Turkey were gathered in labor battalions in which no Muslim citizens were enlisted. This policy is also known as "the conscription of twenty classes" (in Turkish, "yirmi kur'a nafıa askerleri" or "soldiers for public works by drawing of twenty lots").
Instead of active service, they were forced to work under terrible conditions constructing roads and airports. Some lost their lives or caught diseases. In other words, these were concentration camps for non-Muslim, male citizens of the country.
It was one of the many discriminatory policies by the Turkish government that aimed to impoverish and eventually annihilate non-Muslim citizens of the country.
After being forced to work in labor battalions for over a year, they were finally released on July 27, 1942.
Historian Ayşe Hür describes the conscription as follows:…"
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Armand
