PKK begins disarmament process

After 40 years of armed struggle against the Turkish state, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) will hold a ceremony on Friday to mark a symbolic first step in laying down its arms, the BBC writes.

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

Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has hailed the move as “totally ripping off and throwing away the bloody shackles that were put on our country’s legs”.

Some 40,000 people have been killed since the conflict began, and the PKK is listed as a terror group in Turkey, the U.S., EU and U.K..