This paper addresses a historical puzzle: Why do people continue to join the Kurdish insurgent organization (Kurdistan Workers Party - Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan), which has been militarily subdued, officially renounced the goal of secession, and whose leader has been under the custody of the Turkish state, in a time when non-violent expressions of Kurdish identity have been rapidly expanding in Turkey? The paper presents findings of an ongoing research project on the Kurdish insurgent movement and some preliminary answers to this question. Previous research has demonstrated that the survival of an insurgent organization is a function of its ability to recruit new members and prevent splits. An insurgent organization has strong incentives to disarm and reinvent itself as a non-violent entity when its recruitment levels drops below the sustenance rate. This did not obviously happen in the case of the PKK. The question of why people join insurgencies that entail tremendous risks and initially few benefits attract considerable scholarly attention. People may join or support an insurgent organization because they seek selective incentives in the shape of pecuniary rewards, which overcome the collective action problem. Alternatively, an insurgent movement can attract new members by offering them collective incentives in the shape of bonds of solidarity, ideological fulfillment, and moral purpose. Successful insurgent recruitment depends on the level of control the insurgent organization exerts over its constituency. The paper will evaluate how these theoretical expectations fare in the light of the recruitment patterns to the PKK. A better understanding of the micro-level dynamics of insurgency recruitment will generate a better understanding of conflict resolution at the macro-level. The paper is based on multiple methodologies that combine ethnographic research and historical narratives with systematic analysis of the obituaries of the PKK militants killed in action. The author visited Kurdish regions of Turkey many times and interviews dozens of people since 2002. He also interviewed several ex-PKK militants in Iraqi Kurdistan in fall 2007. The PKK regularly publishes short obituaries of its killed militants since 2003. Information about the militants killed before 2003 is also available in published PKK affiliated sources. The author analyzes information about more than 2,000 PKK militants killed in action to reach some general conclusions about recruitment patterns. Finally, personal memoirs, news articles, and websites sponsored by PKK dissidents provide unique insights to the dynamics of PKK recruitment.