The outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) militants would start to withdraw from Turkey within eight to ten days, the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) said Saturday.

Now final preparations were underway to ensure the withdrawal be completed under a secure environment, Sirri Sureyya Onder, the deputy of the BDP, told reporters.

He also said that the Turkish government was developing an educational program to help realize the political transition of PKK cadres.

The Turkish government has been holding peace negotiations with the PKK's jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan since last October. Onder is one of the mediators in the BDP.

Ankara insisted the PKK must first lay down their arms and leave the Turkish territory, a request initially rejected by the leaders of the PKK.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey and part of the international community, took up arms in 1984 in an attempt to create an ethnic homeland in southeastern Turkey. Since then, some 40,000 people have been killed in conflicts involving the group.