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"">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 for manufacture of

military equipment A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. Militaries are typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with their members identifiable by a d ...

, building construction, construction and care of roads. They were forced to work under very poor 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 A fifth column is a group of people who undermine a larger group or nation from within, usually in favor of an enemy group or another nation. The activities of a fifth column can be overt or clandestine. Forces gathered in secret can mobilize ...

" if Germany attacked Turkey, after it had also invaded its neighbors Greece and

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

. 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 under the Republican People's Party (CHP) government in Turkey in 1942, with the stated aim of raising funds for the country's defense in case of ...

and

Istanbul Pogrom The Istanbul pogrom, also known as the Istanbul riots, were a series of state-sponsored anti-Greek mob attacks directed primarily at Istanbul's Greek minority on 6–7 September 1955. The pogrom was orchestrated by the governing Democrat ...

. 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 consider ...

'', 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 Turkey in World War II History of the Republic of Turkey Discrimination in Turkey Forced labour during World War II Persecution of Greeks in Turkey Greece–Turkey relations Violence against men in Asia

See also

Sources