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

By Ako Rasheed SULAYMANIYAH, Iraq (Reuters) -Thirty Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants burned their weapons at the mouth of a cave in northern Iraq on Friday, marking a symbolic but significant step toward ending a decades-long insurgency against Turkey.

The decision by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) to lay down its arms and apparently disband has reverberated across the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq.

A deadlock persists despite continuous government efforts to resume oil shipments from Iraqi Kurdistan through the Turkish port of Ceyhan.

Turkish President Erdogan has made it clear that the agreement between Ankara and the Kurdish Workers Party was motivated by reactionary aims related to the imperialist war in the Middle East.