Dozens of Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants began handing over weapons in a ceremony in a cave in northern Iraq on Friday, officials said, marking a symbolic but significant step towards ending a decades-long insurgency against Türkiye.
Helicopters hovered above the mountain where the disarmament process started, with dozens of Iraqi Kurdish security forces surrounding the area, a Reuters witness said.
The PKK, locked in conflict with the Turkish state and outlawed since 1984, decided in May to disband, disarm and end its separatist struggle after a public call to do so from its long-imprisoned leader Abdullah Ocalan.
After failed peace efforts, the new initiative could pave the way for Ankara to end an insurgency that has killed more than 40,000 people, burdened the economy and wrought deep social and political divisions in Türkiye and the wider region.
The ceremony was held inside the Jasana cave in Dukan, 60km northwest of Sulaymaniyah in the Kurdistan region of Iraq's north, according to an Iraqi security official and regional government official.
Around 40 PKK militants and one commander were to hand over their weapons, people familiar with the plan said. It was unclear when more handovers would take place.
The PKK has been based in northern Iraq after being pushed well beyond Türkiye's southeastern frontier in recent years. Türkiye's military has regularly carried out operations and strikes on PKK bases in the region and established several military outposts there.
No footage of the ceremony has been made available yet, but Turkish broadcasters have been showing the crowds gathered near Sulaymaniyah and landscapes of the mountainous region as part of their coverage of what they said was a historic moment.
The arms will be destroyed later in a ceremony attended by Turkish and Iraqi intelligence figures, officials of Iraq's Kurdistan regional government and senior members of Türkiye's pro-Kurdish DEM party, which also played a key role in facilitating the PKK's disarmament decision.
The PKK, DEM and Ocalan have all called for Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan's government to address Kurdish demands for more rights in regions where Kurds form a majority, particularly the southeast where the insurgency was concentrated.
In a rare online video published on Wednesday, Ocalan also urged Türkiye's parliament to set up a commission to oversee disarmament and manage the broader peace process.
Ankara has taken steps towards forming the commission, while the DEM and Ocalan have said legal assurances and mechanisms were needed to smooth the PKK's transition into democratic politics.
Omer Celik, a spokesperson for Erdogan's AK Party, said the disarmament process should not be allowed to drag on longer than a few months to avoid becoming subject to provocations.
Erdogan has said the disarmament will enable the rebuilding of Türkiye's southeast.
Finance minister Mehmet Simsek has said Türkiye spent nearly $1.8-trillion (R32-trillion) over the past five decades combating terrorism, endorsing the peace steps as an economic boon.
The end of Nato member Türkiye's conflict with the PKK could have consequences across the region, including in neighbouring Syria where the US is allied with Syrian Kurdish forces that Ankara deems a PKK offshoot.
Washington and Ankara want the Kurds to quickly integrate with Syria's security structure, which has been undergoing reconfiguration since the fall in December of autocratic president Bashar al-Assad. PKK disarmament could add to the pressure, analysts said.
Reuters
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