Kurdish separatist fighters in Iraq begin laying down weapons as part of peace process with Turkey

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 on 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 that 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.

Öcalan renewed his call in a video message broadcast on Wednesday, saying, “I believe in the power of politics and social peace, not weapons.”

Most journalists weren't allowed at the site of Friday’s ceremony, in the mountains of Sulaymaniyah province in northern Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region.

Footage from the event showed fighters — both men and women — casting rifles and machine guns into a large cauldron, where they were then set ablaze.

The PKK issued a statement from the fighters who were laying down their weapons, saying that they had disarmed “as a gesture of goodwill and a commitment to the practical success” of the peace process.

“We will henceforth continue our struggle for freedom, democracy, and socialism through democratic politics and legal means,” the statement said.

The state-run Iraqi News Agency reported that 30 fighters had disarmed “symbolically” on Friday, and that the continuing disarmament process “will take place in stages.” The process is expected to be completed by September, the agency reported.

An Iraqi Kurdish political official said representatives of the Turkish intelligence service and of the Kurdish regional government, Iraq’s Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party and the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party, a pro-Kurdish party in Turkey, were present. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak publicly.

Turkish parliamentary Speaker Numan Kurtulmus said the initial disarmament step had proceeded “as planned,” but cautioned that the process was far from complete.

“There’s still a long way to go in collecting many more weapons,” Kurtulmus said. “What matters is ending the armed era in a way that ensures weapons are never taken up again.”

He said the Turkish parliament was close to setting up a commission to oversee the peace process.

Devlet Bahceli, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s nationalist ally who initiated the peace process, welcomed the ceremony, saying in a written statement that it marks "historic developments that signal the end of a dark era."

Bahceli, who has traditionally maintained a hard-line stance against the PKK, surprised everyone in October when he suggested in parliament that Öcalan could be granted parole if he renounced violence and disbanded the PKK.

Erdogan, in an X post, called Friday's ceremony an “important step toward our goal of a terrorism-free Turkey.”

The PKK has waged an armed insurgency against Turkey since 1984, initially with the aim of establishing a Kurdish state in the southeast of the country. Over time, the objective evolved into a campaign for autonomy and rights for Kurds within Turkey.

The conflict between militants and state forces, which has spread beyond Turkey’s borders into Iraq and Syria, has killed tens of thousands of people. The PKK is considered to be a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.

Previous peace efforts between Turkey and the PKK have ended in failure — most recently in 2015.

The PKK has long maintained bases in the mountains of northern Iraq, where Turkish forces have launched offensives and airstrikes and have set up bases in the area. Last year, Iraq’s government announced an official ban on the separatist group, which long has been prohibited in Turkey.

Scores of villages have emptied as a result of the violence. Displaced Kurdish Iraqis have voiced hopes that the peace process will finally allow them to go home.

Officials have spoken of a five-part peace process with the PKK, with the first phase being the political initiative launched by Bahceli, followed by Öcalan’s message in February urging the PKK to abandon the armed struggle.

The next two steps would focus on legal reintegration of the PKK fighters and long-term healing and reconciliation efforts.

Kurds in Iraq said that they were optimistic, although some expressed fears that the deal would collapse.

“This will benefit both sides,” said Abdulrahman Abbas, a resident of the town of Dukan, near where the ceremony took place. "Why should this bloodshed continue for nothing?”

A Kurdish political activist from Sulaymaniyah, Mohammed Alaa, called the move a “positive step” that will “bring security stability in northeastern Syria and Iraq.”

“But the goal is for these steps to continue, and for Turkey to take the initiative to release Kurdish prisoners,” he said.

PKK officials previously said that in order to continue disarming, they want to see Turkey take steps to end “the regime of isolation” imposed on Öcalan in prison and to allow integration of former militants into the political system.

Bewar Amin Tahir, a spokesperson at Makhmour, a camp in Iraq for Kurdish refugees who were displaced from their villages in Turkey in the 1990s during fighting between Turkish forces and the PKK, said he hopes the peace process would “open the door for a return to our villages and end three decades of suffering and hardship.”

But he said the “Turkish state must also adhere to this initiative. ... So far, this process seems to be proceeding from one side only.” He called for Turkey to “begin amending its constitution so that the Kurds have their rightful place.”

Even if that happens, he acknowledged that many camp residents are not likely to return to Turkey. “Most of their homes are destroyed and burned,” Tahir said, and the refugees' children, born in the camp, do not know another home.

Questions remain about the future of Kurdish fighters in Syria. Turkey considers the Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF — a U.S.-allied, Kurdish-led force controlling much of northeastern Syria — to be a terrorist group because of its affiliation with the PKK.

The SDF and authorities in Damascus agreed in March to merge the Kurdish forces into the national army — a move supported by Ankara — but the two sides have remained at an impasse over how to implement the deal.

Abdul-Zahra reported from Baghdad. Associated Press writers Abby Sewell in Beirut and Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, contributed to this report.

Forces of the regional Kurdish administration secure the area of the Jasana Cave ahead of a symbolic disarmament ceremony by the separatist PKK group as part of the peace process with Turkey, in Sulaymaniyah governorate, Iraq, Friday, July 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

Forces of the regional Kurdish administration secure the area of the Jasana Cave ahead of a symbolic disarmament ceremony by the separatist PKK group as part of the peace process with Turkey, in Sulaymaniyah governorate, Iraq, Friday, July 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

Forces of the regional Kurdish administration secure the area of the Jasana Cave ahead of a symbolic disarmament ceremony by the separatist PKK group as part of the peace process with Turkey, in Sulaymaniyah governorate, Iraq, Friday, July 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

Forces of the regional Kurdish administration secure the area of the Jasana Cave ahead of a symbolic disarmament ceremony by the separatist PKK group as part of the peace process with Turkey, in Sulaymaniyah governorate, Iraq, Friday, July 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

Forces of the regional Kurdish administration patrol the area ahead of a symbolic disarmament ceremony by the separatist PKK group as part of the peace process with Turkey, in Sulaymaniyah governorate, Iraq, Friday, July 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

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