SIRNAK, Turkey — Perched atop a boulder in the desolate landscape of Sirnak province, his assault rifle slung on his back, Ahmet pointed at a stretch of the deserted road that runs through these parts down to the Turkish border with Iraq and Syria.

“It was over there that my uncle was killed in a PKK [Kurdistan Workers Party] ambush on a civilian minibus in 1992,” he said. “That’s when I picked up his gun and took his place with the village guards.”

Ahmet was 15 years old when he joined the guards, the Kurdish paramilitary group mustered by the Turkish state to fight alongside the army against the PKK. Age 36 today, he has been standing guard against rebel attacks on this road for 21 years.

Like Ahmet, tens of thousands of Kurds remain armed against the PKK in a state-run system that has fostered dependency and crime, stoked blood feuds and fomented enmity across the impoverished region. As an end of the Kurdish conflict appears to draw close, the question of how to disband, employ and reintegrate the village guards and their large families becomes increasingly pressing.