In northern Iraq, 30 fighters of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) symbolically burned their weapons to mark the end of their decades-long armed struggle against Turkey.

Footage from the event shows male and female fighters standing in line, placing their weapons into a large cauldron-like container, which was then set on fire.

According to a foreign news agency, the PKK — which has been engaged in an armed struggle against the Turkish state since 1984 and is banned — announced in May this year that it would dissolve the group, lay down arms, and end the separatist movement, following an appeal from their imprisoned leader, Abdullah Öcalan.

The ceremony took place near the entrance of a cave named Jasana, about 60 kilometers northwest of Sulaymaniyah, in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq.

During the ceremony, the fighters, dressed in military uniforms, stood alongside their four senior commanders, including prominent female leader Besê Hozat. She read a statement in Turkish announcing the group’s decision to disarm.

She declared, “In your presence, we are voluntarily destroying our weapons as a gesture of goodwill and commitment.”

Present at the event were Turkish and Iraqi intelligence officials, representatives of Iraq’s Kurdish autonomous government, and senior members of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish DEM Party.