The jailed leader of a Kurdish militant group renewed Wednesday a call for his fighters to lay down their arms, days before a symbolic disarmament ceremony is expected to take place as a first concrete step in a peace process with the Turkish state.

Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), said the group's armed struggle against Turkey has ended and called for a full shift to democratic politics in a video message published online on Wednesday.

Abdullah Öcalan, the jailed founder of the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Turkey, has called on his followers to abandon their armed struggle against the Turkish state, speaking directly to supporters by video for the first time in 26 years.