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Turkish Embassy Denies Report That Jews Make Up 80 Percent of Military Unit in Korea

January 5, 1951
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The Turkish Embassy here today denied a report that Jewish conscripts make up 80 percent of the Turkish Army unit serving with the United Nations forces in Korea and that Jewish casualties had been high. The Embassy press attache, who said that the troops in Korea were not volunteers but conscripts, estimated that there are “only ten or at most 15 Jews” among the several thousands of Turkish troops in the brigade.

The report, published in Al Hamishmar, Tel Aviv newspaper of the left-wing Socialist Mapam, stated that Jewish soldiers had been selected from various Turkish Army units for inclusion in the expeditionary force. The newspaper estimated that the Jews constituted 80 percent of the Turkish unit in Korea and that Jews had suffered many casualties.

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