A key task will be smoothing the city's troubled road to the 2020 Olympics, hit by a series of embarrassing scandals and soaring costs.

Aleppo, Syria's biggest city before the outbreak of the conflict, has been divided between govt forces and rebels since the summer of 2012.

The scale of Erdogan's crackdown has unnerved Turkey's NATO allies, fuelling tension between Ankara and the West.

Hundreds took to the central streets of the Armenian capital on learning about the decision of the group to surrender.