Kurdish PKK fighters destroyed their weapons in Iraqi ceremony

Fighters of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) destroyed their weapons at a ceremony held Friday in Iraqi Kurdistan, two months after the Kurdish rebels announced the end of more than four decades of armed struggle against the Turkish state.

The PKK, considered a terrorist group by Turkey and its Western allies, took up arms against Ankara in 1984 to achieve the creation of a Kurdish state in a conflict that has left more than 40,000 dead.

The disarmament ceremony took place Friday morning near Suleimaniya, in the Iraqi Kurdistan region bordering Turkey, where Kurdish fighters take refuge in the mountains. An initial group of 30 guerrillas burned their weapons, an AFP journalist noted.

"We hope this action will bring peace and freedom. More than ever, our people need a peaceful, free, just and democratic life," a commander declared before some 300 people.

Although initially announced as a public ceremony, access was eventually restricted to a limited number of guests for security reasons. Among them were members of Turkey's pro-Kurdish DEM party, which has acted as a mediator between PKK founder Abdullah Öcalan and the Turkish government.

It was through the DEM that the PKK founder, imprisoned since 1999, called in February for a cessation of hostilities and the start of talks for the disbandment of the guerrillas, which was announced in May.

The leader of the nationalist MHP party, Devlet Bahceli, an ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, also played a leading role in this process, inviting months earlier the Kurdish fighters to renounce the armed struggle and "to come and speak before Parliament."