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 "co

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