Ending more than four decades of armed conflict… The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) fighters burn their weapons in a symbolic ceremony in northern Iraq

Thirty Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) fighters, including women, laid down their weapons on Friday in a ceremony near the northern Iraqi city of Sulaymaniyah, two months after the Kurdish fighters declared an end to four decades of armed conflict against the Turkish republic.

This disarmament ceremony, which the party described as a “historic operation,” represents a turning point in the PKK’s transition from armed insurgency to political action, as part of broader efforts to end one of the region’s longest-running conflicts, which has left more than 40,000 dead since 1984.

Commenting on this, a senior Turkish official told AFP, requesting anonymity, “The PKK fighters laying down their weapons in Sulaymaniyah represents a milestone…a tangible and welcome step”.

He added, “We consider this development an irreversible turning point”.

Thirty fighters, including four commanders, burned their weapons near the ceremony site, outside Jasna Cave, 50 kilometers west of Sulaymaniyah.

Media reports indicated that the site held great symbolic significance, as it housed a printing press from which one of the first Kurdish newspapers was published.

After the fighters, both men and women, descended the steps in front of the cave, they stood on a platform in front of about 300 people, with a picture of party founder Abdullah Öcalan behind them.

Two leaders, Besi Hozat and Bahçeşe Şerşel, then delivered a statement in Kurdish and Turkish, describing the destruction of the weapons as a “historic democratic process”.

“We’re hopeful that this step will bring goodness, peace, and freedom… at a time when our people are most in need of a life of freedom, equality, democracy, and peace,” the two Kurdish said.

One by one, the fighters threw rifles and machine guns into a hole and set it on fire.

Many onlookers wept at the scene, while others chanted, “Long live Apo,” Öcalan’s nickname.

These fighters are expected to return to the Iraqi mountains where they are stationed, according to a PKK official.

The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), founded by Öcalan in the late 1970s, announced on May 12 its dissolution and disarmament, ending a conflict that had long strained relations between the Turkish authorities and the Kurdish minority and neighboring countries.

This came in response to a call made by Öcalan on February 27 from his prison on İmralı Island off Istanbul.

On March 1, the party, which Ankara and its Western allies classify as a “terrorist” organization, declared a ceasefire.

Over the past ten years, most PKK fighters have taken refuge in mountainous areas of northern Iraq, where Türkiye has established military bases to confront them for 25 years and has regularly launched ground and air operations against them.

The laying down of arms represents a turning point in the indirect negotiations that have been ongoing since October between Öcalan and Ankara under the auspices of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

For his part, Erdoğan told reporters on Saturday on his way back from an economic summit in Azerbaijan that peace efforts with the Kurds “will accelerate slightly when the terrorist organization begins to implement its decision to lay down its arms”.

In another statement to members of his ruling party on Wednesday, he said, “We’re entering a new phase in which we will receive positive news in the coming days,” adding, “We hope that this operation will conclude successfully as soon as possible, without any incidents or sabotage attempts”.

Kurds in Türkiye hope that the party’s abandonment of armed struggle will pave the way for a political settlement with Ankara, opening the door to renewed openness toward this minority, which constitutes approximately 20% of the country’s 85 million population.