The Kurdish militant PKK said Sunday it was withdrawing all its forces from Turkey to northern Iraq, urging Ankara to take legal steps to protect the peace process.

The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) formally renounced its armed struggle against Turkey in May, drawing a line under four decades of violence that has claimed some 50,000 lives.

"We are implementing the withdrawal of all our forces within Turkey," the PKK said in a statement read out at a ceremony in the Qandil area of northern Iraq, according to an AFP journalist present.

At the ceremony were 25 fighters -- eight of them women -- whom the PKK said had just left Turkey. It was not immediately clear how many would be involved overall but observers estimated it would likely be between 200 to 300.

Turkey hailed the move as "concrete results of progress" in efforts to end one of the region's longest-running conflicts.

But the PKK urged the Turkish government to waste no time in taking the necessary legal steps to advance the process, which began a year ago when Ankara offered an unexpected olive branch to its jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan.

And it said the parliamentary commission managing the peace process must meet with Ocalan as soon as possible, insisting his release was essential for the success of the process.

"Significant steps need to be taken, legal arrangements for a process compatible with freedom," senior PKK militant Sabri Ok told journalists at the ceremony, referring to laws governing the fate of those who renounce the armed struggle.

"We want laws that are specific to the process, not just an amnesty."

The group has said it wants to pursue a democratic struggle to defend the rights of the Kurdish minority in line with a historic call by Ocalan in February.

- 'Specific to the PKK' -

RTL

In July, a first group of PKK militants burnt their weapons at a symbolic ceremony in northern Iraq / © AFP/File

Indirect talks with the PKK began late last year with the backing of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who hailed the group's move to start destroying weapons in July as a victory for the nation.

Turkey has also set up a cross-party parliamentary commission to lay the groundwork for the peace process and prepare a legal framework for the political integration of the PKK and its fighters.

But it was essential that the commission meet Ocalan, Ok said.

"The parliamentary commission must immediately go to Leader Apo and listen, that's the key. He's the one who initiated and pushed through the process, so he must be listened to as soon as possible," he said, using a nickname for Ocalan.

The 48-member parliamentary commission is also tasked with deciding the fate of Ocalan, 76, who has been held in solitary confinement on Imrali prison island near Istanbul since 1999.

The PKK has repeatedly demanded his release, saying the success of the peace process depends on it.

"A solution to the Kurdish issue is impossible while Leader Apo is imprisoned. He must live and work freely. His physical freedom must be ensured," Ok said.

Over the past year, Ocalan has been visited several times by family members and negotiators from the pro-Kurdish DEM party and last month, he got access to his lawyers for the first time since 2019.

DEM, Turkey's third-biggest party, has played a key role in facilitating the emerging peace deal with Turkish media, saying a party delegation would meet Erdogan in the coming days before travelling to see Ocalan again.

Analysts say with the PKK weakened and the Kurdish public exhausted by decades of violence, Turkey's peace offer handed Ocalan a chance to make the long-desired switch away from armed struggle.

In July the PKK held a symbolic ceremony in northern Iraq at which they destroyed a first batch of weapons, which was hailed by Turkey as "an irreversible turning point".