SULAYMANIYAH, Iraq (Reuters) -Dozens of Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants began handing over weapons in a ceremony in a cave in northern Iraq on Friday, officials said, marking a symbolic but significant step toward ending a decades-long insurgency against Turkey.

Dozens of Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants began handing over weapons in a ceremony in a cave in northern Iraq on Friday, officials said, marking a symbolic but significant step toward ending a decades-long insurgency against Turkey. Helicopters ...

Thirty PKK fighters destroyed their weapons at a ceremony in Iraqi Kurdistan on Friday, two months after the Kurdish rebels ended their decades-long armed struggle against the Turkish state.The ceremony marks a turning point in the transition of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) from armed insurgency to democratic politics,

A group of PKK members confirmed "voluntarily destroying their weapons" in a written statement. Video footage of the ceremony is expected later.

The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) on Friday began its historic disarmament with a ceremony in Jasana Cave, a location deeply symbolic of Kurdish resistance and identity.

The jailed leader of a Kurdish militant group renewed Wednesday a call for his fighters to lay down their arms, days before a symbolic disarmament ceremony is expected to take place as a first concrete step in a peace process with the Turkish state.

Turkey on Friday hailed a ceremony where PKK militants destroyed a first batch of weapons as a "milestone" and an "irreversible turning point" on the road to peace.

A group of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) fighters announced on Friday that they publicly disarmed in the Kurdistan Region in direct response to the call from their jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan and as a gesture of good will during peace negotiations with Ankara.