"We warmly welcome Ocalan's message... and we call on the PKK to adhere to and implement this message," Barzani said on X.

"We in the Kurdistan region fully support the peace process," he added, offering his support to ensure its success.

Ocalan said earlier that "all groups must lay down their arms and PKK must dissolve itself" in a declaration drawn up in his cell on Imrali prison island where he has been held in solitary confinement since 1999.

The call came four months after Ankara offered an olive branch to the 75-year-old who founded the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has led a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state that has cost tens of thousands of lives.

The Barzani family is a crucial powerbroker in Kurdish affairs.

Earlier in February, pro-Kurdish Turkish lawmakers conveyed a message to Iraqi Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani, the president's uncle and the veteran chief of the region's ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP).

The other main party in the autonomous region, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), also welcomed Ocalan's call.

"We think it as a responsible and necessary call at this stage to unite the Kurds and resolve issues through peaceful dialogue," Bafel Talbani, the chief of the PUK, said on X.

"We urge all parties to embrace this statement and take practical steps toward achieving comprehensive peace, seizing this historic opportunity," he added.

The PKK, designated a terrorist organisation by Turkey and its Western allies, holds positions in Iraq's Kurdistan region, where Turkey also maintains military bases and often carries out ground and air operations against the Kurdish militants.