Update - Erdogan: Syrian Kurds Seem To Accept Fsa İn Kobani

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday that Syrian Kurdish militants have agreed to accept 1,300 Free Syrian Army troops in Kobani.



The troops, from armed opposition to the Assad regime, will join the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant with forces from the Kurdish Democratic Union Party, or PYD.



However, President Erdogan said the Syrian Kurdish fighters, who belong to the Democratic Union Party, could change their minds in the future. 



He said peshmerga forces, Kurdish fighters from Iraq, would also be joining the fight to save the Syrian border town.



"The PYD previously approved the passage of some 200 peshmerga forces," Erdogan said. "However, we later learned that the number agreed has changed and now it is only 150 peshmerga soldiers."



Erdogan made his remarks in a joint press conference with his Estonian counterpart, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, in Talinn, the Estonian capital.



"We clearly said that our approach is very positive toward the Free Syrian Army's fighting in Syria," Erdogan said. "We always said that they were our first preference in Syria, and that the second preference is the peshmerga."



"Now they seem to have accepted some 1,300 troops from the Free Syrian Army," he said.



The Free Syrian Army has agreed to send the troops to the town to aid in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, according to a written statement by the group's operating unit in Aleppo.



The troops will be under the command of Colonel Abdul-Jabbar al-Aqidi. Details of the operations were not made public.



In the statement, the group called on international coalition forces and other armed groups in the region for assistance and cooperation in combating ISIL.



The battle for control of Kobani has been raging since mid-September when ISIL entered the town. An estimated 1.5 million Syrian refugees, including some 190,000 from Kobani, are being sheltered in camps across Turkey.



In a meeting with his Estonian counterpart, Erdogan said the two NATO allies found the opportunity to discuss precautions against terrorism, and the security situation in a number of countries including Ukraine, Syria and Iraq.



He reiterated that Turkey has never accepted Russia's annexation of Crimea and ongoing political pressure on Crimean Tatars, saying that the discussion on that issue with Russian President Vladimir Putin are ongoing. 



"We are for resolving such issues with diplomatic means today," Erdogan said.



Ilves criticized Russia's aggression in Ukraine:  "Russia attempted similar acts in Estonia in the past." 



Estonia and Latvia, two countries on the Russian border and formerly part of Soviet Russia, are concerned that Russia might act towards them as it did in Ukraine in March. After Russia annexed Crimea following a referendum in the peninsula, pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine rebelled to break away from Kiev.



The president also said Turkey's joining a NATO cyber defense center based in Talinn is a positive move.



"When we finally join, I think we will further solidify our cooperation," said Erdogan.



On Friday, Erdogan will visit Cooperative Cyber Defense Center of Excellence, a NATO research center established in 2008,  with the mission of defending against cyber attacks.



Estonia, a NATO ally since 2004, suffered a barrage of cyber warfare in 2007 that disabled the websites of government ministries, political parties, newspapers, banks, and companies for a couple of weeks in 2007 -- the action led NATO to take stricter precautions against cyber warfare.



Within the scope of the visit, Erdogan will also meet with Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet and Parliamentary Speaker Eiki Nestor the same day.



Wrapping up his talks, he will return to Turkey on Friday night.



www.aa.com.tr/en - Ankara