Kurdish militants want to return to Turkey and enter mainstream politics, one of the PKK's joint leaders told AFP on Friday after the group's fighters began destroying their arms at a ceremony in Iraq.

Turkey must push through legal reforms to allow PKK militants to return home without fear of being jailed or killed, a top commander told AFP after the Kurdish militant group began disarming Friday.

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 the first footage of him to be released publicly in 25 years, Abdullah Ocalan said the P.K.K. insurgency against Turkey would be replaced by politics.

The imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party has renewed his call for fighters to disarm. In a video message on Wednesday, Abdullah Ocalan emphasized the importance of abandoning armed conflict and embracing peace through politics.

See PKK fighters burn their weapons in Northern Iraq in a disarming ceremony.