The United States will equip the "Kurdish elements" of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which are mainly formed by the PKK-affiliated People's Protection Units (YPG), with mortar shells, heat-seeking missiles, heavy machine guns, automatic weapons, heavy automatic weapons, armored vehicles and tanks, Russia's Sputnik news agency reported Wednesday.
The list of weapons was reportedly given to Sputnik by an anonymous YPG official, who stated that the group was lacking heavy weaponry, adding that the U.S. was planning to dispatch the military equipment in the near future.
The U.S. decision to use the YPG "to ensure a clear victory" over Daesh in Syria's Raqqa has drawn harsh criticism Turkish politicians.
Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım said Wednesday that Turkey cannot accept "direct or indirect" support for the PKK and organizations which share organic ties with the terror group, adding that the U.S. had still an opportunity to take Turkey's sensitivities into consideration.
Also commenting on the latest U.S. move, Defense Minister Fikri Işık said that arming the YPG would have calamitous consequences in the region, while Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu stated that every weapon obtained by the YPG in northern Syria constitutes a threat to Turkey.
Turkey considers the PYD and its armed wing, the YPG, to be the Syrian affiliates of the PKK, a proscribed terrorist organization in the U.S., Turkey and the EU.
Currently, a Turkish preparatory delegation is holding high-level talks with U.S. officials in Washington ahead of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's visit next week, when he will meet U.S. President Donald Trump.
