Speaking at the Parliamentary General Assembly about the Ministry of Interior budget for 2023, Hasan Özgüneş, a deputy of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), criticized the government for having “turned the country into a police and military state through policies of war.”

Remarking that the centenarian warmongering mentality has created a schizophrenic situation, Özgüneş said, “We cannot save today with this war budget and by taking killing as heroism. The incursions of Vienna, Egypt and Baghdad are left in the Middle Age but some are still leading us back to those times. Not satisfied with the army and the police, they introduced the village guard system. They first named them as “village guards” and now call them “security guards” that could be deployed outside, whether Rojava or Southern Kurdistan. There are 57 thousand village guards in this country. And now, they are not content with that either, calling the retirees to join military operations. A guerrilla from the PKK and a village guard died in the same clash. You make a Kurd kill another.”

Özgüneş pointed out that village guards come to the fore with crimes of fraud, abduction of women, murder, abuse, drugs, weapon and ammunition smuggling, robbery of cattle, dwelling immunity, involvement in armed fighting and smuggling.

“50 thousand village guards are involved in crime. You produce crime machines. Then you talk about brotherhood and fellow citizenship. There can be no such a thing,” he added.

Özgüneş also criticized the police force for confronting people with the words “I am the State” in obstructing deputies and people during demonstrations.

“What kind of a mentality is this? What kind of schizophrenic mindset is this? You crush society through any form of violence. As if that was not enough, you have turned life into a hell, not taking your hands off people’s pockets. What needs to be done is to create a country where all folks, faiths and segments of society share a democratic, egalitarian and law-based life, and to allocate the budget to workers and people.”

VILLAGE GUARDS: ARMED COLLABORATORS

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 become village guards under pressure. The Hamidiye regiments in the Ottoman Empire are considered the historical model of the Village Guards. Today's village guard system emerged 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.