Newscasts - Kurdish PKK militants burn weapons, beginning disarmament
11/07/2025 17:54
Click the following link to watch video: https://share.newscasts.refinitiv.com/link?entryId=1_zjv1onmg&referenceId=tag:reuters.com,2025:newsml_RW920311072025RP1_K15&pageId=Newscasts Source: 'Reuters - General news videos' Description: Thirty Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants burned their weapons at the mouth of a cave in northern Iraq on Friday (July 11) , marking a symbolic but significant step toward ending a decades-long insurgency against Turkey. Zachary Goelman produced this report. Short Link: https://refini.tv/4eGQNaO Video Transcript: Fighters from the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, burned their weapons on Friday. The event signified the beginning of a disarmament process meant to end a bloody, four-decade insurgency against Turkey. Footage of the ceremony released by the PKK media office in Iraqi Kurdistan showed some 30 fighters in fatigues placing rifles and bandoliers into a cauldron, which was then set alight. Kurdish, Iraqi, and Turkish officials watched nearby. In a statement read aloud in Turkish, the PKK executive committee's Co-Chairperson Beze Hozat said, "We voluntarily destroy our weapons, in your presence, as a step of goodwill and determination." The PKK had been locked in a separatist struggle with the Turkish state and outlawed since 1984. The group decided in May to disband and disarm after a public call to do so from its long-imprisoned leader Abdullah Ocalan. A senior Turkish official said the arms handover marked an "irreversible turning point" in the peace process. The insurgency has killed over 40,000 people, burdened the economy and wrought deep social and political divisions in Turkey and the wider region. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said he hoped the PKK's dissolution would bolster Turkish security and regional stability. In a post on X, he wrote, "May God grant us success in achieving our goals on this path we walk for the security of our country, the peace of our nation, and the establishment of lasting peace in our region."