"Turkey has won. 86 million citizens have won," Erdogan declared."We know what we are doing. No one needs to worry or ask questions. We are doing this for Turkey, for our future," he said.

PKK militants began laying down their weapons in a symbolic ceremony in northern Iraq on Friday, the first concrete step towards the group's promised disarmament as part of the peace process.

In May, the PKK announced that it would disband and renounce armed struggle, ending four decades of armed resistance. The PKK plans to engage in a democratic political process.

The disarmament process is expected to be completed by September, the Iraqi state news agency INA reported.

Previous peace efforts between Turkey and the PKK ended in failure in 2015. There had been several other failed attempts to achieve peace before that.

The PKK was formed in 1978 with the aim of achieving Kurdish autonomy in Turkey, but in 1984 it became an armed group and set as its goal the establishment of an independent Kurdish state.