Kurdish separatist fighters in Iraq begin laying down weapons as part of peace deal

SULAYMANIYAH, Iraq -- 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.

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

In Turkey, Devlet Bahceli, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s nationalist ally who initiated the peace process, welcomed the development.

“Starting today, members of the separatist terrorist organization have begun surrendering their weapons in groups, marking historic developments that signal the end of a dark era,” Bahceli said in a written statement. “These are exceptionally important days for both Turkey and our region.”

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

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.

Journalists were not allowed at the site of Friday's ceremony.

An Iraqi Kurdish political official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, said that about 30 fighters took part in the ceremony, which took place in the presence of a representative of the Turkish intelligence service and representatives 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.

PKK officials previously said that in order to continue the disarmament process, 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.

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Associated Press writers Abby Sewell in Beirut and Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, contributed to this report.