SARAJEVO, Bosnia and Herzegovina – Prominent Kurdish sculptor Zirak Mira announced plans to build “a monument of peace” from remnants of the weapons that were destroyed by fighters of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) on Friday as a first step in the group’s self-disarmament process.

In a historic ceremony, 30 PKK fighters, including four commanders, destroyed and burned their weapons near Jasana Cave, in Sulaimani province’s Dukan district on Friday, nearly five months after the group’s jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan issued a call requesting that the faction dissolve and disarm.

Mira, who hails from the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, asked relevant authorities to provide him with pieces from the destroyed firearms so that he can immortalize them in an art piece as a testament to the Kurdish nation’s peaceful spirit.

“This project is more than just an art project for me; it is a message to the peace-loving people across the world. This monument will act as a testament that we, the Kurds, are a peaceful nation,” the artist told The New Region on Friday.

“I have asked relevant authorities for permission to begin working on this project, and I am happy to announce that I have been informed that I can get access to the remnants of the firearms,” he added.

In 2003, Mira sculpted the Purification Statue, a large boot-shaped sculpture made from discarded footwear and abandoned military equipment of Baathist soldiers, which was installed in the city of Kirkuk in place of an imposing statue of Iraq’s toppled dictator Saddam Hussein.

In that same year, he also built the Sun of Liberty Statue from the remains of Baathist military equipment. The sculpture was unveiled in Baghdad’s Firdos Square – once home to the large Saddam effigy which was destroyed by Iraqi civilians and US marines following the 2003 American invasion.

In 2016, Mira sculpted the Berxwdan (Resistance) Monument – a statue honoring Kurdish female fighters in northern Syria’s Kobani. The art piece has become a symbol of the Kurdish town’s resistance, and has been adopted as the official icon of many local institutions in Rojava, including the University of Kobani, as well as the Kobani International Film Festival which takes place annually in Germany.

The artist’s works have been displayed in more than 120 joint exhibitions and at least eight solo exhibitions across the Kurdistan Region and abroad. He has at least 12 large-scale sculptures installed in the Kurdistan Region, Iraq, Syria, Iran, Germany, and Netherlands.

“Let weapons burn and blaze, but spare the flame that scorches a mother’s soul,” Mira concluded, a solemn reminder of the human cost that four decades of conflict have reaped on the region's population.