Kurdish PKK militants burn weapons in Iraq to mark step towards peace

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On Friday, militants from the 30 Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) burned their weapons on the face of a cave in northern Iraq, which identified a symbolic but important move towards the end of the decades of insurgency against Turkey.

The footage of the event depicts the fighters, half of them standing in a row to keep the women, AK -47 attackers rifles, bandwidges and other guns in a large gray sulfur. Later, the flames pointed to the Black Gun Shaft to the sky, when the Kurds, Iraqi and Turkish officials looked closely.

The PKK, locked in a dispute with the Turkish state and illegally since 1984, in May, he decided to end, disarmed and end his separatist struggle after a public call from his long -term leader Abdullah Okalan.

After a failed peace effort, this new move could pave the way for Ankara to eliminate a insurgency that killed more than 40,000 people, put a burden on the economy and gave rise to deep social and political discrimination in Turkey and the wider region.

President Tayyip Erdogan said he hoped that the dissolution of PKK would strengthen Turkey’s security and regional stability. He said of X, “May God give us success in achieving our goals on the path that we walk for the security of our country, the peace of our nation, and the establishment of lasting peace in our region.”

Friday’s ceremony took place at 60 km, in the town of the shop, on the entrance of the cave [37 miles] In the Kurdistan region of Iraq, northwest of Sulaimania.

Four commanders, including senior PKK figures, were included in the Khakastari military fatigue, including senior PKK Figar 20 hoses, who announced the group’s arms decision and read a statement in Turkey.

“In your presence, we voluntarily end our weapons as a step of goodwill and determination,” he said, before another commander read the same statement in Kurdish.

Helicopters with dozens of Iraqi Kurdish security forces surrounding the mountainous region, a Reuters witness said.

The event was attended by Turkish and Iraqi Intelligence data, Iraqi regional government officials and senior members of Turkey’s Kurdish Dam Party.

It was unclear when more handover would be.

A Turkish senior official said that a “unprofessional turning point” has been marked in the peace process regarding the arms, while another government source said that the coming measures would legally re -unite and promote the communities of PK members in Turkey.

Wider importance

The PKK has been based in northern Iraq after Turkey has moved well from the southeastern Frontier in recent years. The Turkish army regularly strikes at PKK bases in the region and set up several military checkpoints there.

NATO member Turkey’s KPK’s results can have the consequences in the region, including neighboring Syria, where the United States is alliance with the Syrian Kurdish forces, which Ankara has considered the PKK off -shoot.

Washington and Ankara want them to be quickly connected to the Kurdish Syrian security structure, which has been passing through the reorganization since the fall of the sovereign President Bashar al -Assad in December. Analysts say the PKK reduced weapons can increase the pressure.

PKK, Dam and Okalan have all called on Erdogan’s government to resolve the demands of Kurds for more rights in areas where the Kurdish majority, especially in the southeast of Turkey, where the insurgency was committed.

In a rare online video published on Wednesday, Oklan – whose large image was shown at the weapons ceremony – also called on the Turkish parliament to set up a commission to monitor the weapons -free and handle a wider peace process.

Ankara has taken steps to form the commission, while the Dam and Okalan have said that legal assurances and some mechanisms are needed to smooth the transfer of PKK to democratic politics.

Erdogan’s AK Party spokesman, Amir Selik, said the event had marked the first step towards full -fledged weapons and “terrorism -free Turkey”, adding that it should be “in a short time”.

Erdogan has said that reduction weapons will enable reconstruction of Turkey’s southeast.

Finance Minister Mehmet Samsic has said that Turkey has spent about $ 1.8 trillion in the past five decades to fight terrorism.