94 village guards paid for duties they never carried out in Özalp

The AKP / MHP regime is continuing its efforts to organize its supporters and collaborators in a paramilitary manner. However, in the Kurdish districts it is becoming more and more difficult to mobilize village guards. Even in the 1990s, when people were threatened and forced to become paramilitaries, no such units could be set up in the district of Özalp in the province of Van. Therefore, collaborators from other districts have now been appointed as village guards. 94 people from the neighbouring provinces of Hakkari, Muş and Bitlis had put their names down as paramilitaries and were sent to Özalp by the regime. However, the village guards never went to Özalp. They only received their weapons in Van and then went back home. Although the village guards never entered Özalp, they are paid by the regime.

Election promise of the AKP

Apparently, some of the new village guards had been promised jobs by the AKP before the local elections in 2019. The local AKP representatives had received sums of money from the people during the election campaign and promised to repay them with a job as village guard. Last year there was a similar case in Erçiş. The representatives of the AKP district leadership disappeared after they had received around 200,000 euros from 200 people who had been promised to be hired as village guards. The defrauded filed a lawsuit, but the case was dropped for lack of evidence.