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ERDOĞAN ALTAN
VAN (DİHA) – Following mass massacre in Mardin where 44 people had been killed by the village guards, village guards’ widows involved in discussion about village guard system as part of security measures against PKK.
Widows of village guards who had to move to Van after their husband’s dying speak to DİHA; being village guards brought only pain and tear for us. As part of this practice we are demanding to be left this system.
Between 1990 and 1992, in Uzundere (Ertuş)-Çukurca Hakkari province, widows of guards had to move to Van. Uzundere is the place where intense conflicts took place and 42 village guards died in 5 years. Guards’ families were left to their fate after death of the guards.
Uzundere emptied
After 42 village guards deaths Uzundere had been emptied for security reason. Their families had been settled in Van and forgotten.
Here are the statements of village guards’ widows;
Asmin Kaya (57); before my husband being village guard we had owned everything. But when he became a village guard everything changed then my husband died in 1993 during a conflict. Now we are living helplessly.
Gürci Duman (45); my husband died in 1993 during a conflict. I have 7 children. Now we are living helplessly and desperate. Village guards are not considered as martyr when they died during the conflict. That is why our applications to the government in order to ask help were denied.
Fatma Kaya; we didn’t want to move out from our village and accepted being guards. But being guard couldn’t prevent from being immigrant. Government forced us to be guard, other wise we had to move out. Any way, we lost everything since being village guards including our relatives’ lives.
Hacer Kaya; I cannot take my husband’s salary after he died. I do not have official-civil marriage. My child had to grown up without father. We had been forced to be guard to not leave the village. We have not been supported or awarded. Being guards brought us death, desperateness, immigration, starving, I mean, shortly tremendous pain.
(gü)