Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday that a new page opened for Turkey following the start of a weapons handover by Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants. Thirty PKK militants burned their weapons at the mouth of a cave in northern Iraq on Friday,

Turkey and Iraq welcomed the PKK's symbolic disarmament as a historic step toward peace. While Erdogan praised the move, Baghdad highlighted its potential for regional stability. The challenge now is transforming this gesture into lasting reconciliation.

Thirty PKK fighters destroyed their weapons at a symbolic ceremony in Iraqi Kurdistan on Friday, two months after the Kurdish rebels ended their decades-long armed struggle against the Turkish state.The ceremony marked a major step in the transition of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) from armed insurgency to democratic politics as part of a broader effort to end one of the region's longest-running conflicts.

Turkey is trying to use the ceasefire to its advantage. Its military is taking advantage of the drop in attacks by the PKK to try to take control of the mountains that it did not previously control.

The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in northern Iraq is expected to give up its weapons within a few months following its decision to dissolve.

The PKK’s transition away from armed struggle is expected to culminate in the establishment of a new political party in Turkey by 2026.

The group took up arms in 1984, beginning a string of bloody attacks on Turkish soil that sparked a conflict that cost more than 40,000 lives. In May, the PKK announced its dissolution.