The disarmament process will start under tight security in Iraqi Kurdistan and is expected to take all summer.

The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has begun the first steps towards disarmament, closing a chapter on a four-decade armed campaign against the Turkish state in a conflict that has killed more than 40,

According to AFP, thirty Kurdish PKK fighters destroyed their weapons at the brief ceremony in a cave. "As a gesture of goodwill, a number of PKK fighters, who took part in fighting Turkish forces in recent years, will destroy or burn their weapons in a ceremony," a PKK commander told AFP on July 1, speaking on condition of anonymity.