DIYARBAKIR, Turkey — For travelers in southeast Turkey, it's common in rural areas to see men in uniform armed with AK-47 assault rifles. They take part in operations with security forces, guard government facilities and clash with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), but they are neither police nor soldiers. They're called “village guards.”

Some are full-time government employees; others are on short-term contracts. The village guard system is based on a law passed in 1924 that was updated and applied in 1985 when the PKK attacks started.

This paramilitary force was controversial from the outset. The PKK and its sympathizers accused the guards of treason, as most of them are Kurds, and accused the state of instigating bloodshed among Kurds. The state said the fact that a guard system was needed was proof that most Kurds were opposed to the PKK. The acrimonious debate never ceased. The PKK demanded that the system be abolished and that those involved be prosecuted. The village guards weren't particularly threatened by those demands; they were more worried about their future, asking what would happen to them once the Kurdish issue was solved.

Their opponents alleged that the guards were altering the social fabric of the region. A 2013 report by Surec Research Center titled “Provisional Village Guards and the Solution Process” said, “Although the village guard system was established as an element of the state’s security policy, those who joined the system used their guns for their personal interests. Because they had the backing of state security forces, they were able to impose themselves as the basic authority of their villages and the region.”