This dissertation explores the notion of individual disengagement from political violence in Turkey by reconstructing the lives of 13 'formers' whom I call the Turkish Penitents. Its specific aim is to compare and contrast the experiences of those individuals who left various politically-motivated leftist/revolutionary groups and of those who desisted from an ethnic/separatist organization, the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party). In an effort to provide a more comprehensive understanding, this study focuses on the preceding and aftermath phases of Turkish Penitents' disengagement, i.e., "how and why they took part in violent actions in the first place" and "who they have become after desisting from political violence." There is currently a lack of conceptual framework in order to account for the notion of individual disengagement from political violence, largely due to the dearth of empirical and ethnographic studies on this notion. Therefore, by reconstructing the personal experiences of the Turkish Penitents through oral-history research, and combining methods and theory from political anthropology, criminal justice and political psychology, this study aims to make its largest contribution to the efforts of social theorizing on this relatively unexplored phenomenon.

Terrorism is a historical problem; however, it becomes one of the biggest problems in 21st century. September 11 and the following Madrid, Istanbul and London attacks showed that it is the most significant problem threatening world peace and security. Governments have started to deal with terrorism by improving security measurements and making new investments to stop terrorism. Most of the governments' and scholars' focus is on immediate threats and causes of terrorism, instead of looking at long-term solutions such as root causes and underlying reasons of terrorism, and the recruitment style of terrorist organizations If terrorist recruitment does not stop, then it is safe to say terrorist activities cannot be stopped. This study focused on the recruitment process by observing two different terrorist organizations, DHKP/C and Turkish Hezbollah. The researcher brings 13 years of field experience and first-person data gathered from inside the terrorist organizations. The research questions of this study were: (i) How can an individual be prevented from joining or carrying out terrorist activities?; (ii) What factors are correlated with joining a terrorist organization?; (iii) What are the recruitment processes of the DHKP/C, PKK, and Turkish Hezbollah?; (iv) Is there any common process of being a member of these three terrorist organizations?; and (v) What are the similarities and differences these terrorist organizations? As a result of this analysis, a terrorist recruitment process map was created. With the help of this map, social organizations such as family and schools may be able to identify ways to prevent individuals from joining terrorist organizations. Also, this map will also be helpful for government organizations such as counterterrorism and intelligence to achieve the same goal.