The incident of the Twenty Classes ( Turkish: ''Yirmi Kur'a Nafıa Askerleri'', literally: "Soldiers for Public works by drawing of twenty lots", or ''Yirmi Kur'a İhtiyatlar Olayı'', Ayşe Hür
"'Türk Schindleri' efsaneleri"
, ''Taraf'', December 16, 2007. Schindler".html" ;"title="Oskar_Schindler.html" ;"title="Turkish Oskar Schindler">Schindler"">Oskar_Schindler.html" ;"title="Turkish Oskar Schindler">Schindler"/ref> literally: "Incident of the Reserve soldiers by drawing of twenty lots") was a conscription used by the Turkish government during World War II to conscript the male non-Muslim minority population mainly consisting of Armenians in Turkey, Armenians, Greeks in Turkey, Greeks, Assyrians in Turkey, Assyrians and History of the Jews in Turkey, Jews. The conscription began in May 1941. All of the twenty classes were drawn from male minority populations and included the elderly and mentally ill. They were given no weapons but were gathered in

Aşkale Labor Camp Aşkale Labor Camp is a labor camp established in Aşkale for taxpayers who do not fully and timely pay the extraordinary wealth tax enacted with the 'Varlık vergisi' in Turkey, dated 11 November 1942 and numbered 4305. With the law enacted in N ...

for manufacture of military equipment, building construction, construction and care of roads. They were forced to work under very bad conditions. The prevailing and widespread point of view on the matter was that, anticipating entry to World War II, Turkey gathered, in advance, all unreliable male citizens of non-Muslim ethnic groups regarded as a potential " fifth column" if Germany attacked Turkey, after it had also invaded its neighbors Greece and

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...

. In July 1942, the men were released from their duty. One of the main intentions of the Turkish government was to seize the assets of the minority population. The conscripted minorities were bankrupted since they could not manage their businesses during the incident of the Twenty Classes and as a result they had to sell their companies and assets for nearly nothing. After this, there followed two major events with almost the same intentions:

Varlık Vergisi The Varlık Vergisi (, "wealth tax" or "capital tax") was a tax mostly levied on non-Muslim citizens in Turkey in 1942, with the stated aim of raising funds for the country's defense in case of an eventual entry into World War II. The underlying re ...

and Istanbul Pogrom. Baskın Oran
"Azınlıklardan alınıp sermaye biriktirildi"
''

Radikal ''Radikal'' () was a daily liberal Turkish language newspaper, published in Istanbul. From 1996 it was published by Aydın Doğan's Doğan Media Group. Although Radikal did not endorse a particular political alignment, it was generally considered ...

'', February 9, 2008.

Sources

{{DEFAULTSORT:Twenty Classes 1941 establishments in Turkey 1942 disestablishments in Turkey 1941 in military history 1942 in military history Conscription in Turkey Military history of Turkey History of the Republic of Turkey Discrimination in Turkey Greeks in Turkey Persecution of Greeks in Turkey Greece–Turkey relations Violence against men in Asia

See also

Sources