Village guard system

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The village guard system (Turkish: koruculuk sistemi ) is the arming, training and payment of Kurdish paramilitary groups in the east and south-east of Turkey in the fight against the PKK .

Causes and Background

The Hamidiye regiments in the Ottoman Empire are regarded as the historical role model for the village guards . The background of today's village protection system is the Kurdish conflict in Turkey and the Kurdish social structure. The foundation of this society was and is the tribal and clan structure, which affects politics. Within this so-called Aşiret system, the social hierarchy is based on large estates. Many members of the Kurdish groups (Kurdish eşiret ) are therefore economically and socially dependent on the clan or tribal superiors.

Facts

In 1985, one year after the start of the armed struggle of the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party , the Turkish government under Turgut Özal began to arm Kurdish tribes and clans in the fight against the PKK. The basis for this was Law 442 of February 17, 1924. It was expanded by Laws 3175 of March 26, 1985 and Laws 3612 of February 7, 1990. Initially, the village guard system was set up in 22 provinces. In 1993 the number was expanded to 35 provinces. A distinction is made between “voluntary” ( gönüllü ) and “temporary” ( geçici ) village guards who - according to the law - have to surrender their weapons after 45 days in order to prevent abuse. In 1996, 76,900 village guards were deployed in the Southeast Anatolian provinces. In 2005, according to Interior Minister Abdülkadir Aksu, 57,757 village guards were in the service of the state during a parliamentary debate on the subject. The European Union's progress report for 2012 speaks of 45,000 village guards. Village guards receive state payments and - like civil servants - the opportunity to use state supply services such as health care. According to Ertan Beşe, a lecturer at the police college, around 1,400 village guards died in armed clashes.

Negative impacts

The magazine Nokta (No. 52) had the headline in 1996 that every third village guard commits crimes. Between 1985 and 1998, 530 serious crimes were committed by village guards. A parliamentary question listed the involvement of village guards in the following crimes: homicide (296 cases), drug offenses (84), bride robbery (77), illegal arms trafficking (69) and kidnappings . The Interior Ministry announced in 1998 that 23,000 "temporary village guards" had been fired over the past ten years.

The Center for Turkish Studies is of the opinion that individual tribes develop into a regional power factor as a result of the village protection system, which "sometimes control entire regions economically and militarily". All in all, the village protection system has brought about a consolidation of feudal structures in the Kurdish regions. This is reinforced by political mandates from leading tribal representatives in the Turkish parliament.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ MP Amke Dietert-Scheuer: Opportunities for conflict resolution in the Turkish Republic , Bonn, undated, p. 34
  2. ^ Center for Turkish Studies (ed.): The ethnic and religious mosaic of Turkey and its reflections on Germany . Münster 1998, p. 72
  3. ↑ Answer to a parliamentary question (PDF; 31 kB) of June 14, 2005; Accessed October 15, 2012
  4. ↑ See a special report of the Turkey Democratic Forum EU Progress Report 2012 on Turkey ; Accessed October 15, 2012
  5. ↑ Cumhuriyet Hafta No. 8, February 21, 1997
  6. ^ Center for Turkish Studies (ed.): The ethnic and religious mosaic of Turkey and its reflections on Germany . Münster 1998, p. 71

literature

  • Center for Turkish Studies (ed.): The ethnic and religious mosaic of Turkey and its reflections on Germany . Munster 1998
  • Süd-Nord, Lamuv Verlag (ed.): For example Kurden . Goettingen 1996

Web links