SULAYMANIYAH, Iraq (AP) — Fighters with a Kurdish separatist militant group that has waged a decades-long insurgency in Turkey began laying down their weapons in a symbolic ceremony Friday in northern Iraq, the first concrete step toward a promised disarmament as part of a peace process.
The Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, announced in May it would disband and renounce armed conflict, ending four decades of hostilities. The move came after PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan, who has been imprisoned on an island near Istanbul since 1999, urged his group in February to convene a congress and formally disband and disarm.
The ceremony took place in the mountains outside the city of Sulaymaniyah in northern Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region. The state-run Iraqi News Agency reported that “the process will take place in stages, with a group of party members initially laying down their weapons "symbolically.” The disarmament process is expected to be completed by September, the agency reported.
The PKK has long maintained bases in the mountains of northern Iraq. Turkish forces have launched offensives and airstrikes against the PKK in Iraq and have set up bases in the area. Scores of villages have emptied as a result.
The Iraqi government in Baghdad last year announced an official ban on the separatist group, which has long been prohibited in Turkey.
It was not immediately clear how many fighters took part in Friday’s ceremony. Officials had earlier said that the number might be a few dozen.
The Associated Press
