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

The recent announcement by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) to begin the process of disarmament marks a major milestone in the effort to consolidate long-term peace and stability, the Iraqi presidency said on Saturday.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced a hopeful shift as the PKK begins disarmament, signaling an end to decades of unrest. The decision follows urging by imprisoned leader Abdullah Ocalan.

It is part of a larger process in which the PKK is moving to lay down its arms.In May, the PKK said it would lay down its arms and disband, but it is not clear when this process will begin and how long it will take.

Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed founder of the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), is an icon to many Kurds but a "terrorist" to many within wider Turkish society.- Jailed but still leading - With Ocalan's arrest,

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

Ankara stated that granting the right to conditional release for those sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment is not under consideration.