ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - The first batch of 35 fighters of the now-dissolved Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) will lay down arms in a ceremony in Sulaimani, nearly five months after the group’s jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan, in a historic call, asked his party to dissolve and disarm. 

The ceremony will shortly take place at Jasana cave near Surdash, on the Sulaimani-Dukan road.

Jasana is a village located in the Surdash subdistrict. It is 50 kilometers from Sulaimani city center. The Jasana cave is located at the foot of the Nabi Agha heights, in the Sara mountain range. 

The PKK announced its historic decision to disband following its 12th Congress in early May, which responded to Ocalan's call for disarmament and ended a multi-decade armed campaign against the Turkish state.

A large number of representatives of the Iraqi, Kurdistan Region governments, political parties, including Turkey’s pro-Kurdish DEM Party, and journalists from local and internal media have headed to the cave to witness the historical move.

“If the intention is pure in this process, a good future awaits us,” Rafiq Ghafour, a member of the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), the political umbrella of the PKK, told The New Region.

Ghafour added, “If Turkey resolves the issues peacefully, it will be a magnificent achievement for Turkey and the Kurdistan Region.”

The senior KCK official detailed that “after 40 years, the world understood that Kurds cannot be annihilated through fighting. The arms lay-down will have impacts on the region and neighboring countries. It is a process that favors all sides .”

Ocalan said in a video message published on Wednesday that they were “ending the PKK movement" while urging Turkey's parliament to undertake its legislative role to oversee the peace process following PKK disarmament.

Ocalan has been serving a life sentence at Imrali prison, a small but high-security facility on Imrali Island in the Sea of Marmara, since February 1999.

In a statement on Thursday, the KCK, warned that the peace process cannot progress unless Turkey takes action and steps forward, which has to begin with the freedom of Ocalan. 

The imprisonment of Ocalan “must end”.

"A meaningful process and progress can only be achieved in this way.”