Village Guard System
Village guards (Turkish: Korucular, officially Geçici ve Gönüllü Köy Korucuları ("temporary and voluntary village guards")) are paramilitaries. Originally they were set up and funded by the Turkish state in the mid-1980s under the direction of Turgut Özal. Their stated purpose was to act as a local militia in towns and villages, protecting against attacks and reprisals from the insurgents, terrorists and guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). The rationale behind set up of the system was that it would be helpful to the Turkish Army to have an additional force of people who knew the region, and the language in order to assist in military operations against the PKK.
They have been implicated in attacks on Kurdish internally displaced persons returning to their villages after forced evacuation. Around 50,000 to 90,000 village guards are still present in southeastern Turkey, also referred to as Turkish Kurdistan.
The village guards are frequently targeted by PKK guerrilla members as they are seen as traitors. During the ongoing Kurdish–Turkish conflict, 30 village guards have been killed. Accepting to become a village guard is a largely voluntary process, although there are exceptions (see below). A village guard can expect to be paid up to $200 (~130€) per month.
Read more about Village Guard System: Human Rights, See Also
Famous quotes containing the words village, guard and/or system:
“Every day or two I strolled to the village to hear some of the gossip which is incessantly going on there, circulating either from mouth to mouth, or from newspaper to newspaper, and which, taken in homoeopathic doses, was really as refreshing in its way as the rustle of leaves and the peeping of frogs.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Although adults have a role to play in teaching social skills to children, it is often best that they play it unobtrusively. In particular, adults must guard against embarrassing unskilled children by correcting them too publicly and against labeling children as shy in ways that may lead the children to see themselves in just that way.”
—Zick Rubin (20th century)
“In the end we beat them with Levi 501 jeans. Seventy-two years of Communist indoctrination and propaganda was drowned out by a three-ounce Sony Walkman. A huge totalitarian system ... has been brought to its knees because nobody wants to wear Bulgarian shoes.... Now they’re lunch, and we’re number one on the planet.”
—P.J. (Patrick Jake)