The handover of weapons by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in Iraq, following its decision to disband, should be completed within a few months, a spokeperson for Turkey's ruling AK Party said late on Wednesday.

In a seven-minute video message broadcast on media close to the militants, Abdullah Ocalan, the leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, declared that the peace initiative had reached a stage that required practical steps.

Abdullah Öcalan, the jailed founder of the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Turkey, has called on his followers to abandon their armed struggle against the Turkish state, speaking directly to supporters by video for the first time in 26 years.