PKK fighters were to begin laying down their weapons at a ceremony in Iraqi Kurdistan Friday, two months after the Kurdish rebels ended their decades-long armed struggle against the Turkish state. The disarmament ceremony marks a turning point in the transition of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) from armed insurgency to democratic politics,

Abdullah Öcalan, the jailed founder of the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Turkey, has called on his followers to abandon their armed struggle against the Turkish state, speaking directly to supporters by video for the first time in 26 years.