Village guard system

Village guards ( lit. "Rangers") are the government-mandated militia that acts under the Gendarmerie General Command in Turkey.

Background

The Village Guards were levied according to an amendment to the "Law of Temporary Village Guards" of 1924, which was introduced due to the lack of security officers after the war of independence.

Their stated purpose was to act as a local militia in towns and villages, protecting against attacks and reprisals from the insurgents of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

The rationale behind the establishment of the village guards was that it would be helpful to the Turkish Army to have an additional force of people who knew the Southeastern Anatolia Region and the Kurdish language in order to assist in military operations against the PKK.

History

The establishment of the Village Guards resulted into a change of policy by the PKK, who reorganized its military wing at the 3rd party congress in October 1986 and made the joining of its military wing the Kurdistan People's Liberation Force compulsory.

Originally they were set up and funded by the Turkish state in the mid-1980s under the direction of Turgut Özal, the amendment was approved by the Turkish parliament in March 1985, after the first major confrontations between the PKK and Turkey.

From 1985 to 1990, recruitment of village guards was mainly accomplished by negotiating with tribal chieftains, with the tribes being awarded greater autonomy rights in exchange for their services.

In 2012 the Turkish Government indicated that it was planning to phase out the village guard system. But as the conflicts started again in 2014, the village guards assumed the local guiding and local protection operations.

This time, the state not only accepts volunteers. Now, in order to deal with the unemployment in the region, the government hires young people who just finished military service as commando, to become a village guard.

It became difficult for a male person to be a village guard since 2014, too many applications were made in the previous years.

The Gendarmerie General Command brought new conditions to become a village guard after announcing 25,000 people will be employed as village guards in 2019.

Recruitment

There are separate classifications of paid and voluntary village guards, with both being allowed the bear weapons. In 1985 there were 3,679 weapons given to 7,933 village guards. The list was compiled in the 1970s.

Adiyaman had previously also fought against Turkish authority and took part in an attack in which a Turkish prosecutor and several Turkish soldiers were killed in 1975.

Requirements

Be a citizen of Turkey.
Being literate in Turkish.
Having completed military service, not less than 22 years old and not over 60 years old.
Not to be deprived of public rights.
Not being convicted of a crime.
Not being involved in destructive, divisive and reactionary activities being well-mannered and not fighting with everyone.
Not having moodiness like drunkenness.
To be residing in the village where he / she will work.
To certify with a medical report that there is no physical or mental illness or bodily injury that prevents him from performing his duty.
Security Guards must attend training programs.

In 2019 the Security Guards were getting a monthly salary of 2020 TL. In 2020, the monthly salary of the Security Guards, together with the compensation, was 2243 TL.

The members are mostly Kurds but also Circassians, Turks, Uzbeks and Kyrgyz people.

By the year 2000, over 1100 village guards have died in clashes with the PKK and about an additional 1100 were wounded.

Controversies

Crimes

Village guards have immunity for crimes even for rapes or killings. The right to bear arms often lead to solving disputes between a village guard and a "terrorist" in the killing of the latter.

At times also minor conflicts during the soccer game of children or in business relations were solved this way.

Whilst not officially endorsed by the Turkish Government, some village guards are reported to have been involved in "disappearances", extrajudicial executions and torture.

The Turkish government reported that the Village Guards were implicated in attacks on Kurdish internally displaced persons returning to their villages after forced evacuation.

During the conflict Turkish government used village guard system to distinguish “loyal” and “disloyal” citizens and backed the system with material benefits and coercion.

A report by the Turkish Parliament in 1995 confirmed that village guards have been involved in not just these but a wide range of illegal activities, including killing, extortion, and drug smuggling.

The Village Guards gained wealth through smuggling over the Turkish-Iraqi border for which they had immunity.

It was even stated by Van Bruinessen that some village guards were recruited among known smugglers.

The Turkish Interior Ministry estimated that 296 murders were committed by village guards between 1985 and 1996. In a subsequent report in 2006, the Ministry indicated that some 5,000 village guards were involved in criminal activities.

Recruitment process

According to the US State Department, accepting to become a village guard is a voluntary process,

Some people who refused to join the village guards have had their homes burned, or have been forced to leave and their homes and property seized. They have endured sexual assault and humiliation by the Turkish security forces.

There have been some attempts by the Turkish authorities to compensate people who have lost property in this way.

A member of the Turkish Parliament, Ünal Erkan and former governor of some areas of south-eastern Turkey states that,<blockquote>"We posed the people with a choice, either they acted as village guards, or they would be resettled in other provinces. In the evening, we staged what appeared to be a skirmish with the guerrillas, we shot at windows and also directed heavy weapons against the village. As the people depended on their harvest and animals, we destroyed their fields and slaughtered the animals. If this did not help, we surrounded the village and sent in the counter-guerrillas."</blockquote>