President Trump told Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan the U.S. will stop supplying weapons to the leading Syrian Kurdish militia, according to a Turkish news report.
Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, who sat in on a Friday call between the leaders, provided the account to the Daily Sabah newspaper. A White House spokeswoman did not immediately confirm the claim.
The primarily Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) formed during the Syrian Civil War and has been a key U.S. partner in rolling back the Islamic State’s territorial control, liberating the terrorist group’s de facto capital city, Raqqa, last month.
The group is opposed by the Turkish government, which considers the YPG a branch of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has fought an insurgency in Turkey since 1984. The groups have overlapping membership and the PKK has supported the Syrian group.
Turkey invaded northern Syria in August 2016 to prevent the YPG from connecting two major areas of control, leading to some clashes between Turkish troops and allied rebels and the Kurds.
Cavusoglu also told the Daily Sabah Erdogan told Trump “minor issues” — including an ongoing visa-issuance dispute — are not considered “problems” between U.S. and Turkey.
The U.S. stopped issuing non-immigrant visas for Turkish citizens in October — leading to reciprocal action from Turkey — after Turkish authorities arrested a local U.S. consulate employee, Metin Topuz, for allegedly “facilitating the escape” of “known Gulenists.”
Erdogan claims Pennsylvania-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, a former ally, masterminded a failed July 2016 coup. The U.S. has not expelled Gulen, despite requests from Turkey.
Tensions between the U.S. and Turkey include fallout from Erdogan’s guards attacking protesters during a May 2017 visit to Washington. American lawmakers and police call it an unprovoked assault on peaceful demonstrators, many of them U.S. citizens.
Video shows the autocratic leader watched the attack on protesters — who chanted “babykiller Erdogan” and waved YPG banners — after he met with Trump at the White House. Erdogan appeared to relay an order to his security detail before they broke through a police line to punch and kick protesters, though his precise role remains unclear.
The State Department condemned the attack on protesters and in September canceled a $1.2 million sale of guns to Erdogan’s personal security detail. Police charged more than a dozen Turkish citizens in relation to the attack, though U.S. officials had already allowed them to return home.
It’s unclear if the White House will confirm the Turkish description of Trump’s remarks regarding the YPG.
Although Trump never publicly condemned the Turkish guards attacking U.S. protesters, the White House denied Erdogan’s September claim he received a personal apology from Trump when his guards were criminally charged.
