Fighters with a Kurdish separatist militant group that has waged a decades-long insurgency in Turkey have begun laying down their weapons.

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - In a bid to resolve the ongoing financial crisis between Erbil and Baghdad, Rudaw has learned that Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) leader Bafel Talabani and Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein - a senior Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) figure - are set to meet

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

IRBIL, Iraq (AP) — A Kurdish militant group that has waged a long-running insurgency in Turkey announced Thursday its fighters in northern Iraq will begin handing over their weapons, marking the first concrete step toward disarmament as part of a peace process.

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.

Top delegations from the Kurdistan Region’s ruling parties met Monday in Erbil’s Pirmam district to solidify a united stance on key issues - chief among them, the long-running dispute with Baghdad over public sector salaries and financial entitlements.

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.

A ceremony in northern Iraq on Friday saw a handful of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants lay down their weapons, a small but hugely symbolic gesture that marks the beginning of an end to a conflict with the Turkish state that’s lasted nearly five decades and cost tens of thousands of lives.