Deep in the mountains of Turkey's south-eastern Hakkari province, bordering Iran and Iraq, Kurdish livestock owners and farmers are gradually returning with their animals. All photos: AFP
They are coming back to the area as a decades-old armed conflict between Kurdish militants and the Turkish army looks to be at an end
The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has started to disarm in preparation for dissolving itself in response to calls from jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan, as part of a peace process with Turkey's government
The PKK said it would pursue a democratic struggle to defend the rights of the Kurdish minority in line with the historic call by Ocalan, who has been serving a life sentence in Turkey since 1999
Now, Kurdish farmers feel safer tending their sheep in the mountains of Hakkari
Kurdish workers sit in the back of a truck passing a flock of sheep
Kurdish women pose for a photograph in the mountains while attending to a flock of sheep
A Kurdish woman pours milk she collected from the sheep into jerrycans
A Kurdish farmer carries a lamb in the middle of a flock that produces high quality wool
Kurdish farmers attend to their sheep with the prospect of lasting peace in the area
Cilo Sat lakes in the mountains of Hakkari
Kurdish shepherds return to Hakkari mountains after PKK disarms - in pictures
