The disarmament process will start under tight security in Iraqi Kurdistan and is expected to take all summer.

The disarmament of the P.K.K., a group that has battled since the 1980s for Kurdish independence, could end a conflict that has killed more than 40,000 people.

The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has begun the first steps towards disarmament, closing a chapter on a four-decade armed campaign against the Turkish state in a conflict that has killed more than 40,