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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday said he hopes the United States will reverse its decision to arm Syrian Kurdish fighters who are perceived as terrorists by Ankara.

Erdogan said the "fight against terrorism should not be lead with another terror organization" and that "we want to know that our allies will side with us and not with terror organizations."

Erdogan's plea came the same day U.S.-backed Syrian Kurd forces said they've taken Syria's largest dam and a nearby town from ISIS.

The U.S. announced Tuesday it would arm Syrian Kurdish fighters in a bid to recapture the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa despite Turkey's opposition. Ankara considers the Syrian Kurds as an extension of Kurdish rebels in Turkey that have led a three-decade long insurgency against the authorities.

"We are keenly aware of the security concerns of our coalition partner Turkey," Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White said in a statement obtained by Reuters. We want to reassure the people and government of Turkey that the U.S. is committed to preventing additional security risks and protecting our NATO ally.

Erdogan spoke during a joint news conference with the visiting president of Sierra Leone. Erdogan said he would take up the issue during a planned meeting with President Trump on May 16.

"I hope that they will turn away from this wrong," Erdogan said.

Earlier Wednesday, Turkeys defense minister said the decision to supply arms to Kurdish fighters could develop into a crisis between the U.S. and Turkey.

Fikri Isik told NTV television that Turkey had the power to defend its national interests in Syria, but he didnt elaborate further on what he meant.

Isik said it's out of the question for Turkey to support any operation involving the Syrian Kurdish fighters.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Erdogan calls on Trump to reverse decision to arm Syrian ...

The Turkish president has described Israels treatment of Palestinians as racist and discriminatory, as he urged Turks and other Muslims to visit Jerusalem more often to support the Palestinian struggle for an independent state.

Claiming that the decade-long Israeli embargo on the Gaza Strip has no place in humanity, Recep Erdogan called Israeli practices against Palestinians racist and discriminatory.

The only solution to the Israeli-Palestinian issue is to establish a fully sovereign and independent Palestinian state, with East Jerusalem as its capital along the lines of 1967, Erdogan stressed speaking in Istanbul at the International Forum on Al-Quds Waqfs.

The fate of Jerusalem is one of the key issues in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Both Israel and the Palestinians want the historic religious cradle as their capital. The United Nations considers East Jerusalem to be occupied Palestinian territory but hopes that one day Jerusalem can become the capital of two states, Israel and Palestine.

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While both Israel and Palestine declared Jerusalem as their capital, Palestinians usually refer to East Jerusalem as the capital of their independent state, implying that if Jerusalem is one day shared between the states, West Jerusalem could serve as the capital of Israel.

Israel, however, refuses to share custody of the Holy City which it annexed in 1967. With President Donald Trump in office, Israel hopes that Washington would be the first major power to recognize its claims to Jerusalem and abandon the decades-long policy of keeping an American embassy in Tel Aviv.

As Trump and the White House press ahead to help Israel reach a peace deal with the Palestinians, Erdogan said Turkey would continue to support the diplomatic efforts led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The Turkish president also called on the international community to show needed care on Jerusalem-related issues.

Al-Quds [Jerusalem] is holy for all three divine religions, Erdogan said, nothing however that the city remains a symbol of the Palestinian struggle that Turks ought to support.

Both in terms of our religion and historical responsibility, Al-Quds [Jerusalem] and the fight of our Palestinian brothers for rights and justice is of great importance to us. We will keep making efforts for Quds to turn into a city of peace.

To aid the Palestinian cause, Erdogan urged more Muslims to visit Jerusalem.

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We, as Muslims, should be visiting Al-Quds [Jerusalem] more often, Erdogan said, noting that only 26,000 Turks visited the Holy city in 2015, as compared to 600,000 Americans and 400,000 Russians visitors.

Mass pilgrimage and hundreds of thousands of Muslim visitors would be the greatest support to our brothers there, he noted.

The Turkish president also took the time to criticize the Israeli push to limit the Muslim calls to prayer (adhan), especially in the early morning hours through loudspeakers.

If you have faith in your religion, why are you afraid of the adhan? Erdogan asked. We will not allow the adhan to be stopped in Al-Quds.

In March, the Israeli Knesset approved a preliminary reading of a bill which would ban the use of loudspeakers in Israel between 11pm and 7am. The draft law must, however, still be validated in the Knesset.

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Erdogan urges 100s of thousands Muslims to visit Jerusalem ...

ISTANBUL President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday his visit to the United States next week could mark a "new beginning" in relations between the NATO allies which were shaken by a U.S. decision to arm Kurdish YPG fighters in Syria.

Erdogan repeated Ankara's criticism of President Donald Trump's decision, saying it ran counter to the two countries' strategic interests - but also sought to portray it as a relic of the Obama administration's Middle East policy.

"The United States is still going through a transition period. And we have to be more careful and sensitive," he told a news conference at the Ankara airport before departing for China and the United States, where he will meet Trump for the first time since the president's January inauguration.

"Right now there are certain moves in the United States coming from the past, such as the weapons assistance to the YPG," Erdogan said. "These are developments that are in contradiction to our strategic relations with the United States and of course we don't want this to happen."

Turkey considers the YPG an extension of the outlawed PKK, which has fought an insurgency in its southeast region for three decades and is designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the European Union and United States.

Erdogan said he did not want to see "a terrorist organization alongside the United States", and that Turkey would continue military operations against Kurdish militia targets in Iraq and Syria.

He also said he would pursue "to the end" Turkey's demand for the extradition of the U.S.-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen who Ankara says was behind a failed military coup last July. That was followed by a purge of tens of thousands of Turkish state employees accused of links to Gulen, who has denied any involvement in the coup attempt.

But the tone of Erdogan's comments, four days before he is due in Washington to meet Trump, contrasted with angry rebukes from Ankara earlier this week, when the foreign minister said every weapon sent to the YPG was a threat to Turkey and the defense minister described the move as a crisis.

Erdogan, who had a fraught relationship with former President Barack Obama, said his meeting with Trump at the White House next week would be decisive. "I actually see this U.S. visit as a new beginning in our ties," he said.

Trump's Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said after talks in London on Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim that he had no doubt the two countries could work through the tensions caused by the decision to arm the YPG.

A U.S. official also told Reuters that the United States was looking to boost intelligence cooperation with Turkey to support its fight against the PKK.

Asked about U.S. pledges of support, Erdogan suggested he will seek further guarantees when he meets Trump. "Among the information we have received, there is some that satisfy us and others that are not sufficient," he said.

(Writing by Dominic Evans; Editing by David Dolan)

QUETTA, Pakistan A bomb exploded next to a convoy of the deputy chairman of the Pakistan Senate on Friday in the violence-plagued province of Baluchistan, killing at least 25 people, officials said.

ERBIL, Iraq Iraq's Shi'ite paramilitaries launched an offensive on Friday to drive Islamic State from a desert region near the border with Syria as security forces fought the militants in the city of Mosul.

DAKAR In an upmarket suburb of Senegal's seaside capital, a branch of Iran's Al-Mustafa University teaches Senegalese students Shi'ite Muslim theology, among other subjects. The branch director is Iranian and a portrait of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei hangs on his office wall.

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Erdogan sees 'new beginning' in Turkish-US ties despite Kurdish arms move - Reuters

President Trumps May 16 meeting with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, could be definitive for the careers of both leaders. Trump still needs to prove his foreign-policy bona fides. The controversial Erdogan, meanwhile, badly wants a deal to avoid the embarrassing revelations (or, worse yet, charges) that could emerge from an ongoing American criminal case.

Key to understanding Erdogans predicament is that case, the pending trial of one Mr. Rezza Zarrab, a Turkish-Iranian trader with close ties to the Erdogan family. Zarrab was arrested by American authorities on March 19, 2016, and has been held in a New York jail ever since, charged with running a massive scheme through which Iran exchanged oil for Turkish gold in violation of international sanctions. He is joined by Mr. Mehmet Hakan Atilla, the deputy CEO of Turkeys largest bank, Halkbank, who is suspected of serving as his accomplice.

The scheme unquestionably helped Iran in its efforts to finance regional terrorist groups and prop up Bashar al-Assad. It almost certainly couldnt have been carried out without Erdogans blessing, either: It involved bribes paid to several senior members of Erdogans cabinet and, audio recordings suggested, to members of Erdogans family. When it was revealed two years ago, it nearly brought down the Turkish government. Erdogan successfully held on back then by purging the judiciary and the police of political opponents and spinning the scandal as a coup attempt masterminded by exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen, his ally-turned-bitter-enemy. But now, he faces the very real danger that Zarrab and Atilla could implicate him to U.S. authorities in exchange for leniency.

Not surprisingly, Zarrabs attorneys have been trying to slow the case down, successfully convincing the judge to push their next court date back to August 21, 2017. Zarrab and Atilla are expected to testify after the hearings start in August, meaning Erdogan has three months to neutralize the threat posed by the case.

Apparently to that end, Zarrab recently hired former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, a major Trump ally, and former attorney general Michael Mukasey as his lawyers, in a move that had Erdogans fingerprints all over it. Mr. Giuliani, who also lobbies on behalf of the Turkish regime in October he registered with the U.S. government as an agent of the Republic of Turkey is dutifully pressuring the administration to achieve Erdogans preferred outcome. His strategy seems to be proposing Zarrab as a bargaining chip in a forthcoming grand deal between President Trump and the man who plans to be Turkeys president-for-life.

There may be a legal loophole whereby U.S. authorities could justify dropping the charges against Zarrab and Atilla, and Erdogan will doubtless offer Trump enticements extending the U.S. lease on the NATO Incirlik airbase, offering further Turkish assistance in the fight against the Islamic State in an effort to win their release. But Trump would be wise not to listen.

Instead, Trump should let the case proceed, sending a clear message that the U.S. will not sacrifice the rule of law on the altar of diplomatic convenience.

Cooperation with Turkey is in Americas interests. But if Zarrab is convicted and ends up implicating Erdogan in the oil-for-gold scheme, it could set up proceedings against the Turkish president at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. That, in turn, would give the U.S. leverage to demand more substantive concessions from Ankara, including the release of political prisoners, a renewed commitment to free speech, the rule of law, and freedom of the press, and a serious effort to eradicate Salafist jihadist cells in Anatolia. Trump was one of the few world leaders to congratulate Mr. Erdogan for winning yet more constitutional power in a democratically dubious referendum a few weeks ago. But on May 16, he should drop the other shoe.

READ MORE: Turkish Democracy and Its Discontents Turkeys Turn Towards Russia What Happened to the Special Relationship?

Ahmet S. Yayla is an adjunct professor of criminology, law, and society at George Mason University and a senior research fellow at the International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism (ICSVE). He formerly served as the chair of the sociology department at Harran University in Turkey, and as the chief of the Counterterrorism and Operations Department of the Turkish National Police in Sanliurfa. He is the co-author of the newly released book ISIS Defectors: Inside Stories of the Terrorist Caliphate.

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The Criminal Case that Gives Trump Leverage over Erdogan - National Review

Turkey's foreign minister said he saw Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoan's visit to Somalia in 2011 as a pivotal moment for Somalia and a "historic message" to its people and the world.

Mevlt avuolu made these remarks in an article entitled "An enterprising and humanitarian policy for Somalia" on the sidelines of the three-day Somalia Conference in London, which will discuss the eastern African country's future through 2020.

"At a time when Somalian people had almost lost all hope in their future, the president had reassured them that Turkey believed in the future of Somalia and that Somalians would not walk alone. And, just when no world leader dared to visit Mogadishu in two decades and no country committed to help, President Erdogan led the way," avuolu said.

avuolu pointed out Turkey's help in infrastructure: roads, a hospital, an airport, a harbor as well as the Recep Tayyip Erdogan Hospital.

He said: "Turkey has embraced all of Somalia and all Somalians and has done this earnestly."

The foreign minister expressed confidence in the Somali regular army's ability to eliminate the terror organization al-Shabaab.

"Turkey will fully operationalize the Anadolu Military Training Center in September this year. We hope that officers and soldiers will be trained at this center and others will form the muscle of the Somali government to defeat al-Shabaab terrorism."

avuolu also addressed the ongoing drought in the region.

"As we look at the predictable and committed long-term support of the international community, we must not forget the immediate needs of over 6 million Somalians for urgent food assistance," he added.

He said Turkey launched an aid campaign for drought-hit East Africa in March under Erdoan's leadership.

"The Turkish Red Crescent is mobilizing to deliver significant food assistance before the approaching month of Ramadan. The drought impacts not only Somalia and the international community must act rapidly to provide similar assistance to all of Eastern Africa which is afflicted by the drought," he said.

"I am grateful that the U.K. and the UN have heeded Turkey's long-time call to engage in efforts to assist Somalia's normalization," he said, referring to the London Somalia Conference.

"In the economic field, Turkey has already contributed over $600 million to Somalia's development projects," noted the foreign minister.

Prime Minister Binali Yldrm is representing Turkey at the Somalia conference.

Somalia is currently in the grip of an extensive drought, which has also struck several countries in the East African region.

The country also suffers from poverty issues. The estimated number of malnourished children has risen by 50 percent to 1.4 million since the beginning of 2017, according to UNICEF.

The UN also says at least 615,000 people have been displaced in Somalia since 2016 by the drought; 40,000 Somali children have stopped attending school.

Last month, Turkey and Somalia signed deals to boost cultural centers and develop cooperation during a visit by the Somali leader to Ankara.

Turkish Airlines also launched a campaign this year to aid the East African country, transporting humanitarian supplies to Mogadishu.

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Erdoan visit played pivotal tole for Somalia: FM - Yeni afak English