Erdogan Slams US For Supporting Kurdish YPG Forces In Talks With Trump

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told US President Donald Trump during a telephone conversation that the United States' support of the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) and the delay on the US part to implement the road map on Syrian Manbij is unacceptable, Turkish presidential aide Ibrahim Kalin said Monday.

ANKARA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 23rd October, 2018) Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told US President Donald Trump during a telephone conversation that the United States' support of the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) and the delay on the US part to implement the road map on Syrian Manbij is unacceptable, Turkish presidential aide Ibrahim Kalin said Monday.

The talks took place on Sunday.

"Yesterday, Erdogan and Trump talked about FETO [movement of Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, considered terrorist by Ankara]. Erdogan also said that helping YPG is unacceptable, and that the implementation of the road map on Manbij is delayed. In the coming days, [joint military] training will be completed in the area of Gaziantep, and then joint patrolling in the area of Manbij will begin," Kalin told reporters.

He added that the presidents also discussed the case of the recent release of American Pastor Andrew Brunson from a Turkish prison.

"Turkey expects the early lifting of US [Brunson-related] sanctions. This will be a positive step toward the normalization of our relations," Kalin stressed.

US-Turkish relations have suffered a setback amid Ankara's concerns over US support for the YPG, which is viewed by the Turkish authorities as an affiliate of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a terrorist organization, outlawed in Turkey. Ankara has repeatedly accused Washington of failing to fulfill its promises regarding the withdrawal of the YPG, which seized Manbij from the Islamic State terrorist group (IS, banned in Russia) in June 2016.