ABSTRACT
The village guard units were originally set up and funded by the Turkish state in the mid-1980s as local security guards to protect southeastern Turkish towns and villages from attacks and reprisals by the PKK. The responsibilities of the village guards, the specific purposes they serve, the recruitment mechanisms to the system and guards’ relationship with the state have transformed in parallel with the transformation of the conflict. This chapter identifies three periods of conflict that coincide with different responsibilities, recruitment mechanisms, and changing interests of the guards. It shows how a temporary security solution has become a permanent part of the security architecture of the Turkish state.
