The Twenty Classes


The incident of the Twenty Classes was a conscription used by the Turkish government during World War II to conscript the male non-Turkish minority population mainly consisting of Armenians, Assyrians, Greeks, and 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 labour battalions who were employed in the construction of roads.. They were allegedly 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 non-Turkish men regarded as a potential "fifth column" if Germany attacked Turkey, after it had also invaded its neighbors Greece and Bulgaria. 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 and Istanbul Pogrom.