Dozens of Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants began handing over weapons in a ceremony in a cave in northern Iraq on Friday, officials said, marking a symbolic but significant step toward ending a decades-long insurgency against Turkey.

The group of 30 members burned their weapons in a cauldron in Iraq. The group has been fighting with Turkey for 40 years.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday his country had achieved victory after Kurdish rebels destroyed their weapons, ending their decades-long armed struggle against Ankara.

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.

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.