Kurdish shepherds return to graze in peace after Turkish-PKK tensions calm - in pictures

Deep in the mountains of Turkey's southeastern Hakkari province, Kurdish livestock owners gradually return with their animals after decades of armed conflict

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  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

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  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

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  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

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  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

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  Now, Kurdish farmers feel safer tending their sheep in the mountains of Hakkari

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  Kurdish workers sit in the back of a truck passing a flock of sheep

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  Kurdish women pose for a photograph in the mountains while attending to a flock of sheep

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  A Kurdish woman pours milk she collected from the sheep into jerrycans

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  A Kurdish farmer carries a lamb in the middle of a flock that produces high quality wool

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  Kurdish farmers attend to their sheep with the prospect of lasting peace in the area

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  Cilo Sat lakes in the mountains of Hakkari