The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) kicked off a long-anticipated disarmament on Friday with a symbolic ceremony near Dukan in Iraq’s northern Kurdish region, where about 30 militants burned their weapons. The event marked the first concrete step in a phased plan announced by the group after its leadership voted in May to dissolve its armed wing. Speaking in Ankara on Saturday, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hailed the move as “the end of a 47-year scourge” and a victory for all 86 million citizens of Türkiye. He emphasised that the initiative, branded “Terror-Free Türkiye,” was not the result of negotiations or concessions, and declared that “a new chapter in history has opened.” Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Ankara would remain on alert while the process unfolds and announced the formation of a parliamentary commission to monitor compliance and draft any required legal changes. Government officials expect the staged handover of arms to run through September, with oversight extending to Kurdish communities in Iraq and Syria. The PKK began its insurgency in 1984 seeking greater Kurdish autonomy; the conflict has cost more than 40,000 lives and is widely classified as terrorism by Türkiye, the United States and the European Union. Previous cease-fire efforts collapsed in 2015, making the current disarmament attempt the most significant breakthrough in a decade.