President Tayyip Erdogan warned on Wednesday that Turkey had the power and ability to "crush" all terrorists in Syria, including Islamic State and Kurdish militants, while urging all countries to "take their hands off" Syria.

Since last month's fall of Bashar al-Assad, Turkey has said repeatedly it was time for the Kurdish YPG militia to disband. Ankara considers the group, which spearheads the U.S.-allied Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), as a terrorist organisation.

Ankara has said the new Syrian administration must be given an opportunity to address the YPG presence, but also threatened to mount a new cross-border operation against the militia based in northeast Syria if its demands are not met.

Speaking in parliament, Erdogan said the YPG was the biggest problem in Syria now, and added that the group would not be able to escape its inevitable end unless it lays down its arms.

"Regarding fabricated excuses like Islamic State, these have no convincing side anymore," Erdogan said, referring to the U.S. position that the YPG was a key partner against Islamic State in Syria and that it plays a vital role guarding prison camps where the Islamist militants are kept.

"If there is really a fear of the Islamic State threat in Syria and the region, the biggest power that has the will and power to resolve this issue is Turkey," he said.

"Everyone should take their hands off Syria and we, along with our Syrian siblings, will crush the heads of Islamic State, the YPG and other terrorist organisations in a short time."

Turkey has repeatedly asked its NATO ally the United States to halt support for the SDF, and has said the new administration in Syria had offered to take over the management of the prisons.

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Germany will not bring Islamic State fighters back from Syria

The German government is not planning to bring members of the terrorist militia Islamic State with German citizenship who are imprisoned in Syria back to Germany.

Following the fall of long-term ruler Bashar al-Assad, there are fears in the West of a resurgence of Islamic State in north-eastern Syria, especially given tens of thousands of members and their families are in prisons and camps there.

One way of disrupting any reconfiguration of the Islamic State threat in Syria would be to repatriate and prosecute German citizens at home, but the government has rejected this idea.

"There are no plans to bring back imprisoned German men from north-eastern Syria," a spokeswoman for the Foreign Office in Berlin said.

In seven repatriations to date, 27 women, 80 children and one adolescent male have been brought back to Germany from camps in north-eastern Syria, but only after they requested to return.

The German government is aware of a low double-digit number of other women and children who have a connection to Germany and are staying in camps in north-eastern Syria.

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