Turkey tells Germany Kurdish militant groups must lay down arms

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told his visiting German counterpart Annalena Baerbock that it is essential for Kurdish militant groups including the PKK and YPG to lay down arms and dissolve, Turkish foreign ministry officials said.

Ankara considers the YPG, which has fought for years in Syria alongside US troops, to be an extension of the PKK, which fights against the Turkish state and is banned as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the EU and the United States.

Turkish forces and their Syrian allies have clashed with a YPG-led alliance in Syria since the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad this month.