27-year-old village guard Metin Tunç attacked the house of his wife, 24-year-old Birsel Tunç, in the Patnos district of Ağrı.

The armed attack came after Metin Tunç’s wife was subjected to systematic violence by her husband, left home and returned to her family house.

The village guard attacked the family of his wife, intending to kill the whole family.

Birsel Tunç, her brother Fecri Tunç and his wife Nuriye Tunç, and the mother of the family, Hatun Tunç, were seriously wounded as a result of the attack.

Fecri Tunç lost his life at the scene, while Birsel Tunç died shortly after being taken to hospital.

The village guard is on the loose after the massacre.

Village guards

Village guards are paramilitary units used in Kurdistan against guerrillas and unwelcome opposition members. They consist to a considerable extent of tribal leaders, large landowners, families, and individuals who have often worked with the state for decades in an attempt to advocate for the state's interests in Kurdistan. Some of the village guards join this system voluntarily, while others are threatened with murder, arrest, and expulsion and must become village guardians under pressure. The Hamidiye regiments in the Ottoman Empire are considered the historical model of the village guards. Today's village guard system came into being in 1985, a year after the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) launched its armed struggle. At that time, the Turkish government under Turgut Özal began recruiting and arming Kurdish tribes and clans in the war against the PKK. Thousands of Kurdish villages that rejected the village guard system were burned and razed to the ground by the state in the 1990s.