"Turkey Debates the Village Guard System
Publication: Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 6 Issue: 90
May 11, 2009 11:53 AM Age: 1 hrs
Category: Eurasia Daily Monitor, Home Page, Domestic/Social, Terrorism, Turkey
By: Saban Kardas
In last week's bloodbath at an engagement party, masked gunmen armed with assault rifles killed 44 people including the bride and the groom in a small village in Turkey's southeastern province Mardin. As the country debated the causes of this carnage, attention shifted to an evaluation of the village guard system. Since some of the victims and alleged assailants were members of the system, calls for its dissolution or reform have been raised by the opponents of Turkey's counter-terrorist policy. The security bureaucracy and nationalist forces have reacted quickly to defend this institution."
More:Turkey Debates the Village Guard System - The Jamestown Foundation
