A group of 30 Kurdish fighters have ceremonially burned their weapons in northern Iraq, marking a major step toward ending a decades-long insurgency.

Fighters with a Kurdish separatist militant group that has waged a decades-long insurgency in Turkey began laying down their weapons in a symbolic ceremony on Friday in northern Iraq, the first concrete step toward a promised disarmament as part of a peace process.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said the country had “turned . . . a new page in history” as Kurdish militants began to hand over their weapons in the latest step to end a four-decade insurgency that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.

The Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, held a symbolic ceremony on Friday in northern Iraq. It was the first concrete step toward a promised disarmament, as part of a peace process.