ISTANBUL, July 11. /TASS/. Turkey hopes that the process of disarming of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party will be completed in the near future, Omer Celik, the spokesman for the Turkish ruling Justice and Development Party, said.

"We hope that the process of surrendering arms, which began today, will continue. We also hope for its completion as soon as possible," he said.

According to earlier reports, the first group of PKK militants laid down their arms in the mountains of the Sulaymaniyah Governorate, Iraqi Kurdistan on Friday. As follows from the footage released by the Turkish media, at least 30 submachine guns and one rocket launcher were symbolically lit on fire. Some 30 PKK members, about half of them women, took part in the ceremony.

In February, PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, who is serving time in prison in Turkey on terrorism charges, called on all PKK-affiliated groups to lay down arms and end the armed conflict with Ankara. The party’s conference in May made a decision to self-dissolve and put an end to the nearly 50-year standoff with Turkey’s authorities.