No more arms for terrorist PKK/PYD, Trump tells Erdogan

By Yusuf Hatip

ANKARA (AA) - U.S. President Donald Trump has told his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan that Washington will not give terror group PKK/PYD weapons anymore, said Turkish foreign minister.

Remarks by Mevlut Cavusoglu came after Trump and Erdogan held a telephone conversation on 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 thing should have been ended before," Cavusoglu told reporters in a joint news conference with Congolese Deputy Prime Minister, and Foreign and Regional Integration Minister Leonard She Okitundu.

Following the phone call, Erdogan tweeted: “I had a fruitful phone conversation with the U.S. President Donald Trump today."

The PYD and its military YPG wing 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.

The U.S. and the coalition have largely ignored PYD/YPG links to 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, support which has included supplying arms and equipment.