ISTANBUL, July 13, (AP): Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday hailed start of a disarmament process by militant Kurdish separatists as the end of a "painful chapter” in Turkey's troubled history. Erdogan told a meeting of his ruling AKP party in Ankara that the more than 40-year-old "scourge of terrorism” for which the Kurdistan Workers' Party - or PKK - was responsible is on its way to ending.

Erdogan's remarks came a day after male and female members of the PKK in northern Iraq cast rifles and machine guns into a large cauldron where they were set on fire. The symbolic move was seen as the first step toward a promised disarmament as part of a peace process aimed at ending four decades of hostilities.

The move came after PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, who has been imprisoned on an island near Istanbul since 1999, urged his group in February to convene a congress and formally disband and disarm. In May the PKK announced that it would do so. The PKK had waged an armed insurgency against Turkey since 1984, initially with the aim of establishing a Kurdish state in the southeast of the country.

Over time, the objective evolved into a campaign for autonomy and rights for Kurds within Turkey. The conflict, which spread beyond Turkey’s borders into Iraq and Syria, killed tens of thousands of people. The PKK is considered to be a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union. Previous peace efforts between Turkey and the PKK have ended in failure - most recently in 2015.

"Today the doors of a great Turkey, a strong Turkey, a Turkish century have been opened wide,” Erdogan said. In a statement issued on Friday, the PKK said the fighters who were laying down their weapons, saying that they had disarmed "as a gesture of goodwill and a commitment to the practical success” of the peace process.