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		</div><p>Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said he hopes the United States will reverse its decision to arm Syrian Kurdish fighters perceived as terrorists by Ankara.</p>
<p>Mr Erdogan&#8217;s remarks came a day after the US announced it would arm the fighters as a necessary step to recapture the Islamic State group&#8217;s Syrian stronghold of Raqqa.</p>
<p>Mr Erdogan said the &#8220;fight against terrorism should not be led with another terror organisation&#8221; and that &#8220;we want to know that our allies will side with us and not with terror organisations&#8221;.</p>
<p>The president said he would take up the issue during a planned meeting with US President Donald Trump on May 16.</p>
<p>Mr Erdogan said: <i>&#8220;I hope that they (the US) will turn away from this wrong.&#8221;</i></p>
<p>During a visit to Montenegro on Wednesday, Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said there was no difference between the Syrian Kurdish fighters and the outlawed Kurdish rebels fighting Turkey.</p>
<p><i>&#8220;Every weapon that reaches their hands is a threat towards Turkey,&#8221;</i> Mr Cavusoglu said.</p>
<p>However, the Syrian Kurdish group labelled a terror organisation by Turkey hailed the US decision to arm it with heavy weapons to fight IS.</p>
<p>The YPG militia said the decision is &#8220;historic&#8221; and a &#8220;sign of confidence&#8221; in the group, in a statement released on Wednesday.</p>
<p>Turkey&#8217;s deputy prime minister Nurettin Canikli denounced the decision as &#8220;unacceptable&#8221; and said it &#8220;amounts to support to a terror organisation&#8221;.</p>
<p><i>&#8220;The Trump administration providing arms to a terrorist organisation &#8211; either directly or indirectly through the YPG &#8211; does not change the fact that this amounts to support to a terror organization,&#8221;</i> Mr Canikli said.</p>
<p>The YPG said the US commitment to the group, and its umbrella coalition the Syrian Democratic Forces, will allow it to expand its operations against IS.<br />
It said the decision is a refutation of the &#8220;distortions&#8221; likening the YPG to a terror organization.</p>
<p>Ilham Ahmed, a top official in the Syrian Democratic Forces&#8217; political office, said the decision to provide heavier arms carries &#8220;political meaning&#8221; and &#8220;legitimises the YPG and the Syrian Democratic Forces&#8221;.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">U.S. plan to arm Syrian Kurds in fight against IS group outrages Turkey, report @philiptissa and <a href="https://twitter.com/suzanfraser?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@suzanfraser</a>. <a href="https://t.co/BZpT0NSC7M">https://t.co/BZpT0NSC7M</a> <a href="https://t.co/CejR64NMS7">pic.twitter.com/CejR64NMS7</a></p>
<p>&mdash; AP Europe (@AP_Europe) <a href="https://twitter.com/AP_Europe/status/862320918873374724?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 10, 2017</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>She said the decision is likely to be met with &#8220;aggression&#8221; from Mr Erdogan.<br />
The SDF&#8217;s rapid advance against IS last year prompted Turkey to send ground forces across the border for the first time in the six-year civil war to help allied Syrian forces battle IS and halt the Kurds&#8217; progress.<br />
Since then, Turkey is believed to have positioned more than 5,000 troops in northern Syria, and has escalated its air strikes and cross-border artillery attacks against Kurdish forces.<br />
A Turkish air raid in late April killed 20 YPG fighters and media officials, prompting the US to deploy armoured vehicles along the border in a show of support for the group.</p>
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