In a symbolic but important step toward putting an end to a decades-long conflict against Turkey, thirty Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants burned their guns at the mouth of a cave in northern Iraq on Friday.
The combatants, half of whom were women, were shown in the ceremony’s video lining up to load AK-47 assault rifles, bandoliers, and other weapons into a huge grey cauldron. Later, as Kurdish, Iraqi, and Turkish authorities looked on, flames consumed the black gun shafts pointing above.
Following a public statement by its long-incarcerated leader Abdullah Ocalan, the PKK, which has been in combat with the Turkish government and banned since 1984, decided in May to disband, disarm, and put an end to its separatist struggle.
