"He [Brett McGurk] visits Kobane at the time of the Geneva talks and is awarded a plaque by a so-called YPG general?" Erdogan told reporters on his plane while returning from a trip to Latin America and Senegal, the Beser Haber newspaper reported.

"How can we trust [you]?" Erdogan said.

"Is it me who is your partner, or the terrorists in Kobane?" the Turkish president said, adding that both the PYD and the YPG are "terrorist organizations." Ankara considers them to be part of the PKK, banned in Turkey as a terrorist group.