| Country: | Turkey |
| Details of Formation: | The use of rightist gunmen and criminals to carry out killings on behalf of the Government began after the 1980 military coup. |
| Details of Termination: | There are no mentions of the group after a big scandal in 1997, which revealed the connections between politicians, police and criminals in targeting Kurd ‘enemies’. A wave of indictments of politicians and security officials whose connections were known followed. The change in government in 1999 is used to code the termination of the group. |
| Purpose: | The group’s main purpose was to kill Kurdish separatists and groups that opposed the government. Leading state officials profited from the group because they could use it to direct killings against personal enemies and business rivals. |
| Organisation: | The group had connections to leading officials, including senior policemen, security service members, and two parliamentarians who assigned the gunmen to the specific killings. The National Security Council, consisting of top military and civilian leaders had previously approved the use of extra-legal measures. |
| Weapons and Training: | The group had guns. |
| Size: | A news source estimates in 1996 that the group consisted of up to 120 people. |
| Reason for Membership: | Members profited from their official connections to cover up drug smuggling, money laundering, extortion and other lucrative crimes. |
| Treatment of Civilians: | The group was regularly killing civilians, mainly Kurdish people and government critics, but also businessmen. These killings were mainly ordered by leading government officials. The gunmen themselves used their connections to the officials to cover up further killings of their business rivals. |
| Other Information: | This PGM accounts for the network of death squads. Groups separately coded, but probably also belonging to some extent to this network are the Hezbullah, Village Guards, JiTEM and Grey Wolves |
| References: | Information was taken from news sources listed in the PGMD. |