Turkey's Erdogan says Kurdish militants in Syria will be buried if they do not lay down weapons

ANKARA, Dec 25 (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that Kurdish militants in Syria would either lay down their weapons or "be buried", amid hostilities between Turkey-backed Syrian fighters and the militants since the fall of Bashar al-Assad this month.

"The separatist murderers will either bid farewell to their weapons, or they will be buried in Syrian lands along with their weapons," Erdogan told lawmakers from his ruling AK Party in parliament.

He also said Turkey would soon open its consulate in Aleppo, and added Ankara expected an increase in traffic at its borders in the summer of next year, as some of the millions of Syrian migrants it hosts begin returning.

(Reporting by Huseyin Hayatsever
Writing by Tuvan Gumrukcu
Editing by Ece Toksabay)

((tuvan.gumrukcu@tr.com; @tuvangumrukcu; Reuters Messaging: tuvan.gumrukcu.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))