Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced a hopeful shift as the PKK begins disarmament, signaling an end to decades of unrest. The decision follows urging by imprisoned leader Abdullah Ocalan.

A group of 30 Kurdish fighters have ceremonially burned their weapons in northern Iraq, marking a major step toward ending a decades-long insurgency.

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.

Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed founder of the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), is an icon to many Kurds but a "terrorist" to many within wider Turkish society.- Jailed but still leading - With Ocalan's arrest,

The PKK's jailed leader says in video address that his movement no longer seeks a nation state ahead of ceremony to lay down arms

It is part of a larger process in which the PKK is moving to lay down its arms.In May, the PKK said it would lay down its arms and disband, but it is not clear when this process will begin and how long it will take.

Ankara stated that granting the right to conditional release for those sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment is not under consideration.

As the president’s traditional support wanes, he is seeking a risky deal with the Kurds to buy a political lifeline. But is there too much mutual mistrust for a deal?