PKK begins disarmament process after 40 years of armed struggle in Turkiye

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.

Al Jazeera's Mahmoud Abdelwahed was at that disarmament event, while Sinem Koseoglu is in Istanbul with the reaction from the Turkish government. Meanwhile, Yusuf Alabarda, a former Turkish military and NATO officer, says PKK fighters are no longer operating inside Turkiye, and this has made peace possible.

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