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.

Speaking to AFP after handing in her own weapon alongside 29 of her comrades, the Kurdistan Workers' Party's top female commander Bese Hozat said if Turkey were willing, the disarmament process could be completed very quickly.

But the 47-year-old militant also warned the fragile peace process risked being derailed if Ankara fails to free the PKK's jailed founder Abdullah Ocalan, also known as 'Apo' -- Kurdish for 'uncle'.

"If Apo were freed tomorrow and... Turkey made legal and constitutional arrangements the next day, within a week we could return to engage in democratic politics," she said of a process which Ankara expects to last for months.

Ocalan has been serving a life sentence in solitary confinement on........

© Al Monitor