Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on the Turks to be ready for conscription, during a speech in the town of Kahramanmaras, raising questions about the course of the country’s military operations in Syria.

“Let everyone be ready for conscription, though the need is not immediate. We are just before a new resurrection. After consulting with the military leadership and sending out conscription papers to the public, we will rush to the call with me being the first to do so”, the Turkish president stressed.

Erdogan’s statements, as well as reports in Turkish electronic media urging citizens to see the locations they would be drafted to resulted in the site of the Turkish Ministry of Defence crashing, as did many other websites affiliated to the Turkish government.

The Turkish military operations in the region of Afrin in Syria have entered their second month, with Erdogan claiming it has resulted in the death of “1,873 terrorists”.