Ankara, Jan 27 (AP) Turkey has told the Syrian armed groups it supports that they should integrate into the new national army, Turkey's foreign minister was quoted as saying Monday.

Hakan Fidan said only one legitimate state body should bear arms.

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“There are groups close to Turkey with more than 80,000 armed members. We told them without a second thought, to go and join the national army, to be a part of the national army and not to allow any disorder in the country,” Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency quoted Fidan telling Saudi Arabia's Al-Sharq broadcaster.

The process of forming Syria's new state and military has been bumpy in the nearly two months since the Islamist group Hayyat Tahrir al-Sham established itself as the country's de facto rulers.

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Turkey is a key supporter of the so-called Syrian National Army, or SNA, an umbrella group of Syrian forces in the country's north. Turkey has used the SNA as a proxy army to combat US-backed, Kurdish-led groups in Syria.

Fidan also said he hopes armed groups in southern Syria, such as in Suwayda and Daraa, also join Syria's army. (AP)

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