Yet others cite ignorance, lack of education and the village guard system in the region as possible causes behind this brutal act of violence. Debates have already started on the pros and cons of the possible abolishment of the village guard system. Regardless of the outcome of such debates, this tragedy has been recorded as a black stain on the history of Turkey. Milliyet’s Taha Akyol says the Mardin massacre is more than the product of a tribal mentality in the region, because women and infant are not killed even in tribal feuds. The most striking aspect of this massacre is the scale of the brutality, and the assailants took the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) as a model for themselves, as the PKK has killed even infants to eradicate the roots of families. Akyol also dwells on the debates surrounding the village guard system, because the assailants were village guards and carried out the attack with weapons provided to them by the state. He affirms that this attack has revealed the shortcomings of the village guard system once again, but notes that both sides of this attack were village guards and that they would still have been able to find weapons even if they had not been village guards. In his view, suggestions that this incident was the result of the village guard system in the region are aimed at leaving villages unguarded against PKK attacks. He suggests that calls for the abolishment of the village guard system should be ignored and argues that the system should instead be overhauled.
Although at first glance the motives behind the Mardin massacre seem to be hostility, jealousy and tradition, all these reasons seem far from convincing, says Star’s Şamil Tayyar. Stressing that sociologists should do field work in the region, Tayyar says there are two questions that need to be answered after this tragedy. “Might the assailants have any links with the PKK’s hawks that oppose peace? Could they have been deceived by such people? Thinking the other way around, might the assailants have been provoked by the extensions of the Ergenekon gang, a shadowy criminal network nested within the state structure?” Tayyar asks. He says although his questions may seem fantastic, if convincing and reasonable answers cannot be found to them, then the thesis that the incident was a “massacre of ignorance” will not convince the public.
Radikal’s Hasan Celal Güzel thinks there is no need to discuss the abolishment of the village guard system following this attack, although the fact that the perpetrators were village guards makes the incident even more depressing. In his view, abolishment of the village guard system would only benefit the outlawed PKK, because the village guards have so far heroically defended their villages against PKK attacks. “Put aside the many problems that will emerge after the abolishment of the village guard system. Security, which has not yet been fully established in the region, will get worse and the public there will be left unguarded,” Güzel contends.
