The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has begun the first steps towards disarmament, closing a chapter on a four-decade armed campaign against the Turkish state in a conflict that has killed more than 40,000 people.
A small ceremony was held on Friday in Sulaimaniyah in Iraq’s northern Kurdish region, where 20 to 30 PKK fighters were destroying their weapons rather than surrendering them to any government or authority. The symbolic process was conducted under tight security and is expected to unfold throughout the summer.
Images from the ceremony showed weapons gathered in a cauldron on fire.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan welcomed the development, declaring it as “totally ripping off and throwing away the bloody shackles that were put on our country’s legs”. Erdogan also said the move would benefit the entire region.
The move follows an announcement in May by the PKK that it would abandon its armed struggle.