Overview

• About 40 militants handed over and destroyed several dozen weapons in Northern Iraq before Turkish and Iraqi officials
• Journalists were held hundreds of meters away and the event was not broadcast live for security reasons
• The handover implements Abdullah Öcalan’s February directive and follows the PKK’s formal dissolution in May
• The Turkish government has labeled the move a surrender and escalated detentions of pro-Kurdish party members
• Negotiations over Kurdish cultural rights and the release of political prisoners remain stalled as disarmament proceeds