No more arms for terrorist PKK/PYD, Trump tells Erdoğan
U.S. President Donald Trump told his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan that Washington will not give the PKK/PYD terror group weapons anymore.
The remarks came after Trump and Erdoğan spoke over the phone Friday to discuss the recently-concluded Sochi summit, Syria crisis and bilateral ties.
"Mr. Trump [...] clearly stated that weapons will not be given to YPG anymore and said that essentially this nonsense should have been ended before," Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavusoglu said.
Before his call with Erdoğan, Trump tweeted "what a mistake, in lives and dollars (6 trillion), to be there in [the Middle East] the first place!"
Following the phone call, Erdoğan said on Twitter: “I had a fruitful phone conversation with the U.S. President Donald Trump today."
Çavuşoğlu said one of the topics that negatively affected U.S.-Turkey ties the most were the weapons that Washington supplied to the PKK/PYD terror group.
"Lately, we have seen that some armored vehicles were also given,” he said. “Our president once again conveyed our discomfort to Mr. Trump.”
The White House later confirmed that "consistent with our previous policy", Trump told Erdoğan the U.S. would be making "pending adjustments to the military support provided to our partners on the ground in Syria".
It did not specify which partners it was referring to.
"The leaders also discussed the purchase of military equipment from the United States," the White House added in its readout of the call.
The PYD and its military wing YPG are Syrian branches of the PKK terrorist network, which has waged war against Turkey for more than 30 years.
Since the PKK launched its terror campaign in Turkey in 1984, tens of thousands of people have been killed.
Trump criticized former U.S. President Barack Obama’s Middle East policy by tweeting “We will talk about bringing peace to the Middle East” before the phone call with Erdoğan. Trump has claimed since he was a presidential candidate that the former Obama administration left chaos in the Middle East.
The U.S. and the coalition have largely ignored the links of the PYD/YPG group with the PKK, which the U.S. and the EU also list as a terrorist group.
Turkey has repeatedly objected to U.S. support for the terrorist PKK/PYD as a “reliable ally” in Syria, which has included supplying arms and equipment.
Çavuşoğlu said Erdoğan also informed Trump about Turkey's view on the visa issue with the U.S. and called for complete resolution of the issue.
