Fighters with a Kurdish separatist militant group that has waged a decades-long insurgency in Turkey began laying down their weapons in a symbolic ceremony on Friday in northern Iraq, the first concrete step toward a promised disarmament as part of a peace process.

A group of 30 Kurdish fighters have ceremonially burned their weapons in northern Iraq, marking a major step toward ending a decades-long insurgency.

After announcing they would disarm, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) destroyed their weapons in northern Iraq.

As Kurdish armed group PKK started disarmament today as part of its dissolution, Turkey claimed it as a ‘milestone’ and an ‘irreversible turning point’ in the Turkish-Kurdish conflict.

Kurdistan President Nechirvan Barzani hailed the PKK’s disarmament as a key step toward peace, reaffirming support for the process. The move, backed by Turkish leaders, marks a historic shift after decades of conflict.

As the president’s traditional support wanes, he is seeking a risky deal with the Kurds to buy a political lifeline. But is there too much mutual mistrust for a deal?

In the first footage of him to be released publicly in 25 years, Abdullah Ocalan said the P.K.K. insurgency against Turkey would be replaced by politics.

A few dozen fighters are planned to destroy their fighters in a symbolic disarmament ceremony. There will be no journalists present and the event will not be broadcast live as part of new security measures.