After four decades of armed struggle against the Turkish state, the Kurdish Workers' Party held a ceremony marking the first step toward disarmament.

About 30 fighters, both men and women, laid down their automatic weapons in a large cauldron, where the weapons were burned.

The disarmament process is expected to be completed by the end of the summer.

The ceremony took place in a tourist area, in the Jasan cave, about 50 kilometers northwest of the city of Sulaymaniyah in Iraqi Kurdistan. A delegation of journalists and politicians, including representatives of the pro-Kurdish opposition DEM party, arrived at the site.

In front of the crowd, PUK fighters, including four high-ranking commanders, lined up and placed their weapons in a cauldron, where they were burned.

“We are voluntarily destroying our weapons in your presence as a sign of goodwill and determination,” said a statement from the KDP, calling it a historic and democratic step.

Earlier this week, PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, who has been serving a life sentence in solitary confinement on the island of Imrali, southwest of Istanbul, since 1999, said that this was a “voluntary transition from the stage of armed conflict to the stage of democratic politics and law.”

According to BBC Turkish, the disarmament process will continue over the coming months at specially organized sites with the participation of the governments of Turkey, Iraq, and the Kurdistan region.