Sgt. Serkan İpek, 24, was killed and another senior sergeant was injured in an operation that took place in the area between Diyarbakır’s Kulp and Silvan districts and Batman’s Sason district on Jan. 17. Official statements initially stated that İpek was killed in a clash with the PKK, but shortly after the incident witnesses in the area claimed that there were no terrorists in the region.
As part of an investigation that was launched into the incident by the Kulp Public Prosecutor’s Office, nine empty cartridges found at the scene and three long-barrel guns belonging to village guards in the region were analyzed. The ballistic report showed that the cartridges found at the scene were shot from the guns of the village guards. The report said, however, that the gun used to shoot Sgt. İpek has not yet been identified.
Officials said the ballistics report was sent to the Kulp Public Prosecutor’s Office and that efforts were still under way to determine which gun shot the bullet that killed the sergeant.
Soon after the incident, residents of the village of Hamzalı in Diyarbakır’s Kulp district, which borders Sason, where İpek was killed, said they heard rifle shots on Jan. 17. One villager told reporters: “It was Sunday afternoon. There was heavy fog around the Zore brook. The area had long been silent, and we hadn’t had any incidents for quite some time. At around noon we heard one rifle shot. We didn’t hear anything else. Everyone believes that village guards patrolling the area opened fire on the security forces. If there was a PKK band involved this clash, we would have heard other shots. They would have had some losses, too. We want this to be investigated as thoroughly as possible.”
The village guard system has long been at the center of harsh criticism in Turkey due to a number of murders by village guards. The village guards system began on March 26, 1985, in an attempt to boosts effectiveness in the fight against terrorism. The system is in place in 22 provinces where there are high incidences of terrorist activities. According to data from the Human Rights Association (İHD), as of November 2009 village guards, who are given weapons by the state to protect their villages against terrorists, have killed 235 civilians and injured 189 others in the past 19 years.
About 5,000 village guards have stood trial on charges such as terrorism, human rights violations and smuggling, and many of them have been found guilty. Based on these figures, human rights associations argue that the system should be abolished.
