Erdogan announced an ultimatum to the YPG: Either they will lay down their arms or they will be buried with him

Kurdish fighters in Syria will either lay down their arms or be buried. This was stated today in the Turkish parliament by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Reuters reports.

"The separatists will either say goodbye to their weapons, or they will be buried on Syrian lands with their weapons... We will eradicate the terrorist organization that is trying to build a wall of blood between us and our Kurdish brothers," Erdogan said.

After the departure of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Ankara has repeatedly insisted that the Kurdish YPG militia should be disbanded, arguing that this group has no place in the future of Syria. Turkey is considering the Kurdish YPG militia, the main component of the US—allied Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) — as an offshoot of the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

In addition, Erdogan said that Turkey will soon open its consulate in Aleppo. Ankara expects an increase in traffic at its borders next summer, as some of the millions of Syrian migrants it accepts begin to return, he added.