In a historic first, fighters from the Kurdish militant group PKK have ceremonially burned their weapons — marking the start of disarmament after more than 40 years of conflict with the Turkish state. The event, attended by Turkish, Iraqi and Kurdish officials, is the first concrete step in a peace process launched earlier this year. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has hailed it as a major step towards ‘lasting peace’ in the region. The insurgency is believed to have claimed more than 40,