Village guards ( lit. "Rangers"), officially known as Türkiye Güvenlik Köy Korucuları ("Security Village Guards of Turkey"), are Gendarmerie General Command-aligned Border guards involved in the Kurdish-Turkish conflict. They are mostly Kurds but also Circassians, Turks, Uzbeks and Kyrgyz people. 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 of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). The rationale behind the establishment of the village guards was that it would be helpful to the Turkish Army to have an additional force of people who knew Southeastern Anatolia Region and the language in order to assist in military operations against the PKK. In 2019, the force consisted of approximately 54,000 village guards in total. Background The Village Guards were levied according to an amendment to the "Law of Temporary Village Guards" of 1924, which was introduced due to the lack of security officers after the war of independence. The amendment was approved by the Turkish parliament in March 1985, after the first major confrontations between the PKK and Turkey. There are separate classifications of paid and voluntary village guards, with both being allowed the bear weapons. In 1985 there were 3,679 weapons given to 7,933 village guards. From 1985 to 1990, recruitment of village guards was mainly accomplished by negotiating with tribal chieftain, with the tribes being awarded greater autonomy rights in exchange for their services. History The establishment of the Village Guards resulted into a change of policy by the PKK, who reorganized its military wing at the 3rd party congress in October 1986 and made the joining of its military wing the Kurdistan People's Liberation Force compulsory. The village guards are frequently targeted by PKK militants as they are seen as "traitors" for betraying the Kurdish nation or also seen as adherents to the feudal system. A prominent attack against village guards and their relatives include the massacre committed in the Pinarcik village near Mardin in 1987. The PKK often also hung village guards from trees and stuffed their mouths with money in order to deter the Kurdish population from joining the village guards. During the ongoing conflict since 2015, 62 village guards have been killed. The Village Guards gained wealth through smuggling over the Turkish-Iraqi border for