Pro-Kurdish MPs visit Ocalan as PKK to destroy arms

A delegation from the pro-Kurdish DEM party went to meet jailed PKK founder Abdullah Ocalan on Sunday as his Kurdish operatives prepared to begin destroying their weapons, the party said.

Lawmakers Pervin Buldan and Mithat Sancar travelled with lawyer Ozgur Faik Erol to Imrali prison island near Istanbul where Ocalan has been serving a life in solitary since 1999, a DEM statement said.

The talks came ahead of a planned ceremony by PKK operatives in Iraqi Kurdistan at which they said they would begin destroying a first tranche of weapons -- due on or around 10-12 July.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday the move would give momentum to peace efforts with the Kurds, telling reporters he would also meet the DEM delegation.

"The process will gain a little more speed when the terrorist organisation starts to implement its decision to lay down arms," he told journalists on his way back from an economic summit in Azerbaijan in remarks reported Saturday by Anadolu state news agency.

That meeting is expected to happen next week.

In February, Ocalan urged the PKK to end its armed struggle and disband, which the group formally did in May, drawing a line under a decades-long conflict that has claimed more than 40,000 lives.

The disarmament process is expected to unfold over the coming months.

Earlier this week, top PKK official Mustafa Karasu had accused Ankara of dragging its feet in reciprocating, saying it had "not taken the needed steps", pointing to ongoing strikes on PKK positions in northern Iraq and the failure to improve Ocalan's prison conditions.