Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan issued a stark warning to Kurdish rebels in Syria today, stating they must “either surrender their weapons or be buried with them.”
“The separatist murderers will either say goodbye to their weapons, or they will be buried in Syrian soil along with their weapons,” Erdogan told lawmakers from his Justice and Development Party (AKP) in parliament.
He also announced that Turkey will soon open a consulate in Aleppo and predicted an increase in border traffic in the summer of next year, when a larger number of Syrian refugees are expected to begin returning to their homeland, according to Reuters.
Earlier today, Turkey’s Ministry of Defense stated that the Turkish military had killed at least 21 militants from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Syrian Kurdish group YPG in strikes in northern Syria and Iraq.
The PKK, designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the European Union, and the United States, launched an armed insurgency against the Turkish state in 1984, resulting in the deaths of over 40,000 people.
Turkey also considers the YPG, the leading force in the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), to be an extension of the PKK and classifies it as a terrorist group as well.
Following the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad earlier this month, Ankara has repeatedly insisted that the YPG must disband, arguing that the group has no place in Syria’s future.
Turkey routinely conducts airstrikes and cross-border military operations targeting the PKK, and the operations underway today are part of ongoing clashes between Turkey-backed factions in Syria and the YPG, Reuters reported.
