Title: From Past to Present A Paramilitary Organization in Turkey: Village Guard System
Author: 1.ŞEMSA ÖZAR, 2. NESRİN UÇARLAR, 3. OSMAN AYTAR
Translated by: Sedef Çakmak
Language of Translation: Turkish
Place of publication: Diarbakir
Publisher: DISA
Release date: 2013

This research is planned to consist of three stages. The first chapter prepared by Osman Aytar aims to analyze the village guard system within a historical context. The historical context carries great importance for two reasons: The first one is the fact that the village guard system introduced in 1985 bears great resemblances to the Hamidiye Cavalry Regiments that were established during the Ottoman period. Therefore, understanding the significance of this entity for the central government will provide us important clues in deciphering the village guard system that stands before us as a paramilitary force. The second historical context covers the last 30 years. Even though the village guard system has been defined as “temporary” on legal grounds throughout these 30 years, what stands before us is an institutionalized paramilitary organization in which two, even three generations have been subjected to its effects. The reports and the discussions that took place in the National Assembly and the public regarding this system help us to evaluate this historical process from a different point of view. In the second chapter prepared by Nesrin Uçarlar, discussions on the village guard system noted in the minutes of the meeting of the National Assembly were examined and the members of the governing and opposition parties’ approaches to the subject for decades were analyzed in order to shed light on this period. In addition, the news archives were scanned in order to delineate the events related to the village guard system that was reported in the press. Crimes committed by the village guards, testimonies of the victims and statements of the state authorities were reported through this analysis of archives while showing how the system was used to justify every kind of human rights violation. In addition to the analysis of these archives, field research was conducted. The third chapter written by Şemsa Özar draws on this field research. Face-to-face interviews were made with the village guards and, when possible, their wives and children living in the different regions of Kurdistan. The interviewees were asked how they started working as a village guard, what they have been through, what they think about the system, their opinions on the crimes that were committed, rights and demands of the village guards, and the abolition of the system among other related issues. [1]