Kurdish PKK withdrawing all forces from Turkey

BAGHDAD, Oct 26 (AFP): 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 as held a ceremony in northern Iraq.

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

It released a picture showing 25 fighters-among them eight women-who had already travelled there from Turkey.

The PKK, which formally renounced its 40-year armed struggle in May, is currently making the transition from armed insurgency to democratic politics in a bid to end one of the region's longest conflicts, which claimed some 50,000 lives.

But it urged Turkey to take the necessary steps to push forward the process which began a year ago.