Disengaging from Terrorism ─ Global Lessons from the Turkish Penitents

This book presents an in-depth case study of thirteen individuals who moved away from terrorist activity in Turkey. Setting their life stories in the context of political violence in support of Kurdish independence and a leftist revolution, and the response of the Turkish state, the book examines how the individuals were motivated to become involved in terrorism, how they participated, why they became disillusioned, and above all how they coped with the difficult process of disengagement. The book then draws out general lessons on how individuals can be encouraged to move away from terrorism, and especially on how states can construct repentance mechanisms, and protection mechanisms, to assist with this. The book is a particularly rich valuable source on why people move away from terrorism as most books in the field concentrate on why people become terrorists, and on "terrorist profiling".

Kamil Yilmaz, Chief Superintendent in the Turkish National Police, completed his doctorate at Columbia University, USA