NEWS CENTER – Village guards were used in the state’s evacuation and destruction of villages. The guards collapsed on the property, land, and livestock of the villagers and were subsequently used in unsolved cases; These guards were also used for dumping into acid wells. Today, it is turned into a paramilitary army and used in cross-border operations.
With the Kurdish Freedom Struggle entering a new phase on August 15, the Turkish state sought a devshirme Kurd. The first light bulb that burned in the mind of the state was the village guard. With the law no. 3175 of the Turgut Özal government of March 26, 1985 and the Temporary Village Guards regulation of the Ministry of Interior, the justification ” village guards are kept within the village border to protect everyone’s chastity, life and property” was fabricated, and village guards were put into effect in 1985. Village guards started to be implemented in 13 provinces as of 1993, and the total number increased to 35. The number of guards increased over the years, and according to May 2023 figures, the total number was 57 thousand 584 “security guards” and 17 thousand 600 ” volunteer guards “. It reached 75,184.
Looking at the crimes they have committed in 38 years, from murder to torture, from kidnapping to extortion, from arms smuggling to fraud, from rape to burning villages, from evacuating villages to drug smuggling, to torturing guerrilla funerals, the village guards have turned into a criminal network of the state since 1985.
The AKP, which promised to abolish the village guard when it came to power 21 years ago, instead of abolishing it, turned it into a permanent system and moved it from villages to cities, from within the border to the outside. While the village guard was this paramilitary organization that was created as a “temporary” and “village guard” when it was first launched, it gained a new army appearance with the regulations made after July 15, 2016. The village guards, who are used as “mine donkeys” because they know Kurdish; Together with the soldiers, gendarmes and police, they participate in genocidal-invading attacks in villages and cities and even beyond the border. The village guards, who used to be employed without a legal basis, were institutionalized and legalized by the AKP government.
In this article, we will focus on the village guard system, which is not an innocent structure, but has become the largest criminal organization of the state.
THE BIRTH AND EXPANDATION OF GUARDIAN
The village guard system, which has its roots in the Hamidiye Regiments, was developed by the state to suppress the Kurdish Freedom Movement (KÖH) after the September 12 Coup. KÖH, which the state said ‘we crushed, finished, destroyed’ after September 12, first resisted in the Amed dungeon and then announced its existence to the world with the August 15 Initiative. Despite the then Prime Minister Turgut Özal’s statement, “A group of jokers, we will crush their heads,” the rapid rise of KÖH among the people could not be prevented.
The Özal government, finding the solution to update the Hamidiye Regiments, introduced the village guard system on March 26, 1985, with the Law No. 3175 and the Temporary Village Guard Regulation of the Ministry of Interior. It can be said that there are two reasons why the state wants to expand the village guard system: firstly, to prevent KÖH, whose rise cannot be stopped, in other words, the “security” concern of the state. As a matter of fact, based on this concern, the state forcibly displaced villagers who did not accept the village guards in the cities where the State of Emergency was implemented. Every kind of pressure was applied for the people to accept the village guard. Those who did not accept being a village guard were exiled from their villages, tortured and unsolved. The Turkish state used military, police, judiciary, prison, etc. to make village guards accepted. he used all his difficult devices.
The other reason is to have the Kurds killed by the Kurds due to this security concern, to cause conflicts among the Kurds and to continue to exploit the Kurds. The state only wanted to create a perception of armed force in the war against KÖH for village guards. However, this system was used as one of the ways to break the Kurdish society’s struggle for freedom, justice and equality. For this reason, the aim with the village guard system was not only to use the guards in conflicts, but the state was trying to bind these people to itself intellectually, emotionally and militarily. Thus, there was an effort to establish dominance in Kurdistan not only with weapons, but also by pitting the Kurdish people against each other, by instilling a sense of allegiance.
The state followed a few basic ways to achieve this goal. Although the first enforced the ranger system, he polished and changed his name. Despite the forced imposition of the village guard system on the Kurdish community, the state called it “voluntary village guards”. Later, this name was changed to “security guard” in 2016-17.
Accordingly, some changes were made in the village guard system. Especially after the self-government resistances, serious changes were made in the structure of the village guard in 2016-2017. The old rangers were retired, their siblings and children were recruited as new rangers. The state began to cover all of the guards’ clothing, outfits and equipment, duty allowance, per diem, rewards, operation compensation, and insurance premiums. “New Identity Cards” were given, new mobile phones were distributed. Ranger salaries were indexed to the lowest civil servant salaries.
Pressure was applied to the guards to participate in out-of-town and overseas operations. Daily allowances were given to the village guards participating in the operations. A legal amendment has been made to the guards that they can become expert non-commissioned officers. The number of provinces where the guard system is implemented has been increased. The most critical change made in this period is: In case of committing a crime due to their duties, attorneyship fees of up to 3 lawyers are started to be paid by the governorships. In a way, it was assured that they would be protected by the state against the crimes committed by the village guards. Thus, the state provided legal protection to the village guards who were involved in all kinds of dirty work. So why would the state have provided such protection? Because it’s a criminal network!
GUARDS WORKED LIKE A HEROIN NETWORK
The Turkish state knows and supports that the village guard system is a criminal network. As a matter of fact, according to the documents prepared by the Turkish Ministry of Interior in 1996 as “Special for Service”, it was revealed that one out of every three village guards had committed a crime. Only in the 10-year period between 1986 and 1996 it was recorded that 23,222 temporary village guards were dismissed due to various crimes they committed. In 1996, Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan cited the MIT report as a source and said, “The village guard system in the Southeast works like heroin networks.”
The Ministry of Interior made a list of these crimes committed by the village guards in 2006 and determined that 5,000 guards had committed crimes. Here are the breakdowns of their crimes:
“A total of 5,000 temporary village guards committed crimes, including 2,384 related to terrorism crimes, 934 related to crimes against property, 1234 related to crimes against person, and 420 related to smuggling. 853 temporary village guards were arrested.”
According to the data of the Human Rights Association, the crimes that village guards were involved in between 1985 and 2023 include village burning, evacuation, harassment and rape, kidnapping, armed attack, extortion, and execution. In addition, the village guards committed crimes such as killing people, wounding, enforced disappearance, torture and ill-treatment, causing suicide, burning forest areas, war crimes, crimes against humanity, eco-crime.
RECOMMENDATIONS ON GUARDIAN
In order to examine and investigate the destruction caused by the village guard, which has become a criminal organization, written and oral questions and research proposals have been submitted by the deputies from different dates to the present. The motions of HDP and BDP members about the village guard system on different dates remained unanswered.
Journalist Burcu Karakaş, on the other hand, stated that she used her right to citizenship within the framework of the Access to Information Law, and wrote that she asked various questions about the village guards to the Ministry of Interior and governorships about the village guard system.
GUARDS BENEFIT FROM ‘IMPUNITY ARMOR’
One of the most well-known criminals in Kurdistan was the head guard, Kamil Atak. Although Atak’s name was involved in many unsolved murders, he was released by the AKP judiciary after he was imprisoned for a while. The lawsuit brought against Kamil Atak was seen as limited and isolated. Because the guards were taken under state protection. As a matter of fact, no one was blamed for actions against Kurds, including Atak. Speaking to the press on the release of Kamil Atak, Atty. Emin Aktar said, “There were all the reasons in the file for not being released. After all, there are all attempts such as blackening the evidence, suppressing the witnesses and directing them. These are sufficient grounds for the continuation of detention. Courts do not show the same attitude in other cases, take a tougher stance and do not release them. The main conclusion we draw is this: The State, He says, ‘I will not do any more from this’. From now on, no one should wait for the unsolved murders to be clarified. In this case, there is no JİTEM case anyway. There is one main case, and they did not issue a single arrest warrant.”
THEY KILLED THE CHILDREN, THEY abducted the priest for ransom
Mardin was one of the places where the guards did the most dirty work. On different dates in Mardin, village guards kidnapped and murdered people from different social segments, relying on the weapon given by the state. On November 18, 2008, children named Mehmet (9) and Izzettin Ersoy (13) were abducted by village guards in Derinkaya village of Midyat, and their bodies were found in a well. However, the case was not addressed. Because the perpetrators were the guards.
Another case in Mardin was the kidnapping of the priest. On 28 November 2008, 43-year-old Priest Edip Daniel Savcı, who was going to Barıştepe village from Moryakup Church at the exit of Mardin Midyat district, was found in an abandoned state on the village road. Later, some people called Yohanna Aktaş, the President of the Syriac Cultural Association, and demanded a ransom of 300 thousand euros in exchange for releasing Priest Edip Daniel Savcı. AKP media wrote that Priest Daniel Savcı was kidnapped by the PKK. However, after the investigations, it was revealed that those who kidnapped the priest were kidnapped by a gang of 7 people, of which HE, the volunteer village guard registered to the population of Karalar village in İdil district of Şırnak, was the ringleader.
ZANQIRT- BİLGE VILLAGE MASSACRE
Among the crimes committed by the village guards, the most resounding one was undoubtedly the massacre of the village of Zanqırt -Bilge. After the local elections on March 29, 2009, on May 4, 2009, when the KCK ceasefire continued, Zanqırt in the Mazıdağı district of Mardin.-In the village of Bilge, a group of 8-10 armed people combed a total of 47 people, including 6 children, 16 women (3 pregnant women) and 22 men, with long-barreled machine guns. As a result of the long-barreled gun attack, 44 people, including 6 children, 16 women and men, died. The incident immediately became the focus of the country. It was first said that it was connected with the KCK Operations on 14 April and was carried out by the PKK. However, it soon became clear that the perpetrators of the incident were village guards. Mehmet Çelebi, the village guard nicknamed “Şıh Mehmet” who carried out the attack, did not accept the accusations in his first statement and resorted to the lie that “terrorists raided the village and after the attack we went to the massacre house and helped the wounded”. However, after the investigation, it was revealed that he planned the massacre and combed the villagers.
GOVERNMENT PRAISE TO GUARDS
State officials found the village guard system ‘successful’ at their press conferences on different dates. İlker Başbuğ, the Chief of General Staff of the period, who entered Ergenekon, was one of those who found the village guard system successful at the press conference he held on April 14, 2008. Başbuğ said at a press conference, “Temporary and Volunteer Village Guards have lost 1,335 martyrs in this struggle so far. The fact that the Temporary and Volunteer Village Guards take part in this struggle alongside the state is a very important indicator that the problem is not an ethnic conflict and that the Separatist Terrorist Organization has not been able to provide the support of the people of the region.” said.
On August 24, 2015, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu met with the Anatolian Village Guards and Turkish Martyrs’ Families Confederation at the Çankaya Mansion. The Prime Minister called out to the village guards, “You are the guards of Anatolia and Mesopotamia.” Davutoğlu argued that the village guards are making an effective effort in the fight against the PKK. Praising the village guards in his speech, Davutoğlu stated that the village guard is not a temporary task and said, “You are not passengers of a temporary mission. In fact, while you protect the plateaus and mountains of Anatolia and Mesopotamia, you protect your own homes”, he motivated the guards to the war between the Kurds.
On April 27, 2022, former Minister of Interior Süleyman Soylu took care of the village guards, saying that “in this institution that has been going on since 1985, they carry the flag with dignity and do not give an opportunity to those who want to divide these lands”.
INSTEAD OF CONCLUSION…
As a result, while the state was creating, developing and transforming the guard system, it turned a blind eye to the crimes of those who took part in this system, encouraged and supported them to commit crimes. For this reason, village guards under state control have turned into the biggest crime network. Since the Turkish state’s war with the Kurds continues, when we bring together and evaluate the above examples and the statements of state representatives, the crime of the village guards will continue to be acquitted.
Well, if one day this war ends, then what will happen to these tens of thousands of armed people, hundreds of thousands with their families? What will society do with people who are so involved in crime? And more importantly, what will the Kurdish society do with this system, which deeply shakes social relations within the Kurdish society and turns the child against the father?
