Turkey says Trump told Erdogan weapons won't be supplied to YPG

Turkey and US have agreed to join hands to fight several terrorist organisations, including Daesh, PKK and Fetullah Gulen Terror Organisation (FETO), the Turkish presidency said on Friday. 

Earlier in the day, Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the US President Donald Trump had a phone conversation with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. 

“Mr. Trump clearly stated that weapons will not be given to YPG anymore and said that essentially this absurdity should have ended much earlier,” Cavusoglu told reporters in Ankara.

The YPG is an offshoot of the PKK, a designated terrorist organisation in Turkey, the EU and the US. 

Cavusoglu said Turkey welcomes "the promise of not providing weapons to the YPG," and hopes to see that order carried out soon. 

More than 1,200 people, including security force personnel and civilians, have lost their lives since the PKK resumed its decades-old armed campaign in Turkey in July 2015.

Another significant feature of the phone call was the long-standing question over the US-based cleric Fetullah Gulen, whom Turkey wants to be extradited.  

Ankara holds Gulen and his network responsible for orchestrating the coup attempt on July 15, 2016, which left at least 250 people dead and around 2,200 injured. 

Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in the US since 1999, denies any involvement.

During a telephone conversation Erdogan and Trump also discussed recently-concluded Sochi summit, Syria crisis and bilateral ties, according to a Turkish presidential source.

Cavusoglu said that Russia, Iran and Turkey would decide jointly who would attend Syrian peace talks. Turkey has said it would not accept the presence of YPG representatives.

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

Earlier in the day, Trump had announced his phone call with Erdogan on Twitter.

“Will be speaking to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey this morning about bringing peace to the mess that I inherited in the Middle East."

“I will get it all done, but what a mistake, in lives and dollars (6 trillion), to be there in the first place!” he tweeted.

On Wednesday, Erdogan met Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian leader Hassan Rouhani in Russian city of Sochi for talks on Syria.

During the meeting at the Black Sea resort, the three leaders had agreed on gathering a congress of Syrian groups to advance a political solution for the war-torn nation.

TRT World's Hassan Abdullah has more on the story.