Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday called on the United States to immediately reverse a decision on arming Syrian Kurdish fighters considered by Ankara to be a terror group.

“I hope very much that this mistake will be reversed immediately,” Erdogan said after Washington announced it would arm the Kurdish Peoples’ Protection Units (YPG) in the fight against jihadists in Syria.

Erdogan vowed to bring up the issue in talks with US President Donald Trump on May 16 in Washington, their first face-to-face encounter as heads of state.

“I will personally express our worries in a detailed way when we talk with President Trump on May 16,” he added, saying the issue would also be discussed at the NATO summit in Brussels on May 25.

“We want to believe that our allies would prefer be side by side with ourselves rather than with the terror groups,” he added, saying that whatever happens in Syria and Iraq was a matter of “national security” for Turkey.

Source: AFP