Amendments and additions were made to the Law no. 442 on Villages, Article 74. Accordingly, although village guards are normally active in villages, it became possible for them to be shifted to wider or interprovincial areas, upon the approval of the governor or district governor (Executive Decree 674 Article 21). Another amendment to the same article changed the expression “Temporary Village Guard” with “Security Guard”, and the expression “Volunteer Guards” with “Volunteer Security Guards” (Executive Decree 676 Article 8-9). As such, the expression “security guards” suggests that this position may become a permanent one, and the replacement of “voluntary guards” with “voluntary security guards” suggests that the voluntary guard has been turned into a sort of formal security official.
Another amendment to the same law stipulates that, in cases of investigation or inspection concerning the alleged crimes of security guards and voluntary security guards during their counterterrorism activities, the fees of at most three lawyers will be covered by the governors’ offices from an allowance to be established in the Ministry of Interior’s budget (Executive Decree 694 Article 1).