Village guards in Turkey

Village Guards (Turkish: Köy Korucuları) are state-paid militia members recruited predominantly from rural communities in eastern and southeastern Turkey. Established in the mid-1980s as part of Turkey’s counterinsurgency strategy during the Kurdish–Turkish conflict (1978–present), the system is officially known as the temporary village guard system (Turkish: Geçici Köy Koruculuğu).

As of the early 2000s, over 90,000 individuals had served as village guards. The system has since undergone reforms, but a portion of the force remains active under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of the Interior.

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