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SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq: 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, as part of a broader effort to draw a line under one of the region’s longest-running conflicts.

Founded in the late 1970s by Abdullah Ocalan, the PKK took up arms in 1984, beginning a string of bloody attacks on Turkish soil that sparked a conflict that cost more than 40,000 lives.

But more than four decades on, the PKK in May announced its dissolution, saying it would pursue a democratic struggle to defend the rights of the Kurdish minority in line with a historic call by Ocalan, who has been serving a life sentence in Turkiye since 1999.

Friday’s ceremony was to take place during the morning at an undisclosed location in the mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan — where most of the PKK’s fighters have been holed up for the past decade — near the northeastern city of Sulaimaniyah.

Although there were limited details about the ceremony, a PKK source said around 30 fighters would destroy their weapons and then return to the mountains.

“As a gesture of goodwill, a number of PKK fighters, who took part in fighting Turkish forces in recent years, will destroy or burn their weapons in a ceremony,” a PKK commander said on July 1, speaking on condition of anonymity.

But tensions rose ahead of the ceremony as two drones were shot down overnight near Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga bases, one in Sulaimaniyah, and the other in Kirkuk to the west, according to officials who did not say was behind the attacks. No casualties were reported.

The start of the PKK’s disarmament is a key step in the months-long indirect negotiations between Ocalan and Ankara that began in October with the blessing of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and have been facilitated by Turkiye’s pro-Kurdish DEM party.

Among those expected to attend the ceremony were several DEM lawmakers, who arrived in Sulaimaniyah on Thursday, and a handful of journalists.

It was not clear whether the ceremony would be broadcast live.

“I believe in the power of politics and social peace, not weapons. And I urge you to put this principle into practice,” Ocalan said in a video message released on Wednesday, pledging that the disarmament process would be “implemented swiftly.”

Erdogan said peace efforts with the Kurds would gain momentum after the PKK began laying down its weapons.

“The process will gain a little more speed when the terrorist organization starts to implement its decision to lay down arms,” he said at the weekend.

“We hope this auspicious process will end successfully as soon as possible, without mishaps or sabotage attempts,” he added on Wednesday.

In recent months, the PKK has taken several historic steps, starting with a ceasefire and culminating in its formal dissolution announced on May 12.

The shift followed an appeal on February 27 by Ocalan, who has spent the past 26 years in solitary confinement on Imrali prison island near Istanbul.

NEW YORK CITY: The International Criminal Court has “reasonable grounds to believe” that war crimes and crimes against humanity are being committed in Darfur, its deputy prosecutor, Nazhat Shameem Khan, told the UN Security Council on Thursday.

The humanitarian situation in the region has reached an “intolerable” level, he warned.

Speaking in New York, Khan described an escalating crisis marked by widespread famine, targeted attacks on hospitals and aid convoys, and sexual violence.

“People are being deprived of food and water,” she said. “Rape and sexual violence are being weaponized. Abductions have become common practice. Things can still get worse.”

Her comments came amid escalating violence in Sudan’s Darfur region, where the Rapid Support Forces, one of two main rival military factions in the country, and allied groups have been accused of targeting civilians at displacement camps such as Zamzam and Abu Shouk, and during attacks on the regional capital, Al-Fashir.

Khan said the findings of the ICC were based on extensive evidence gathered from various sources over the past six months, including field missions to refugee camps in Chad, and cooperation with civil society organizations and UN fact-finding agencies.

“We have collected over 7,000 evidence items, documentary, testimonial and digital, supporting our conclusion,” she added.

Highlighting gender-based crimes as a key focus of the investigations, Khan detailed ongoing efforts to increase the visibility of such violations, which remain “underreported and insufficiently recognized.”

A dedicated team is working with Darfuri women and girls to gather testimonies of sexual violence, she said, adding: “There is an inescapable pattern of offending targeting gender and ethnicity through rape and sexual violence. These crimes are being given particular priority.”

There were signs of growing cooperation with the court from the Sudanese government, including a recent visit to Port Sudan that allowed investigators to identify potential new witnesses, Khan said, and a second visit is planned in the near future.

But she urged Sudanese authorities to take bolder steps, particularly in the execution of ICC warrants for the arrest of senior officials, including the former president, Omar Bashir, as well as Ahmad Harun and Abdul Raheem Mohammed Hussein, former officials wanted by the ICC over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the Darfur conflict of the early 2000s.

“Transferring Mr. Harun now would carry exceptional weight,” Khan said. She noted that the charges against him closely resemble those at the heart of another ongoing case, against Ali Mohammed Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, also known as Ali Kushayb, a former Janjaweed militia leader accused by the ICC of orchestrating war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Darfur conflict. A verdict in that case is expected this year.

Khan urged the Security Council and the wider international community to act collectively to address the crisis and break what she described as a “seemingly never-ending cycle of violence fueled by impunity.”

She added: “Every single state here is appalled by what is happening in Darfur. Let us take our report as a blueprint. With your support, we can not only deliver justice but prevent this cycle of violence.”

Despite mounting challenges, including limited resources and obstruction on the ground, Khan said the ICC remains determined to pursue accountability in Darfur.

“We need your support now more than ever before,” she said. Though the ICC’s progress is “never sufficient, relative to the scale of the suffering,” if it can be reinforced through international support, “justice delivered collectively can reduce suffering and lay foundations for peace,” Khan added.

“If we can come together, if we can agree that such suffering needs the support of all those who are able to provide it, I believe the present crisis can ultimately demonstrate how justice delivered collectively can set the foundations for the reduction of suffering and the beginning of work towards peace.”