The Turkish foreign minister said his government is helping Iraqi Kurdish forces reach the Syrian border town of Kobani to join Syrian Kurds who have been fighting Islamic State militants for more than a month.

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu's statement on Monday signals a change in Turkey's stance on helping the Kurds in Syria, according to The New York Times. Turkey for decades has had a fractured relationship with the Kurds.

The announcement that Turkey will allow the passage of Iraqi Kurdish fighters, known as the peshmerga, into Syria comes shortly after the U.S. announced it would be air dropping munitions and supplies to Syrian Kurds in Kobani, indicating an increased international response to the Islamic State threat.

"Iraq's Kurdish Regional Government announced that they are in cooperation with Turkey and the U.S.," Cavusoglu said, according to NBC News. "Actually, we are helping peshmerga forces to enter into Kobani to give support."

Last week, Kurdish fighters in Kobani -- with the help of airstrikes by a U.S.-led coalition -- were able to beat back Islamic State fighters. Prior to those successes, reports claimed that Kobani was likely to fall.

Over the weekend, Islamic state regained some ground against the Kurdish forces, prompting the peshmerga to come join the fight.

Polat Can, a spokesman for the Kurdish forces in Syria, said that the U.S. airdrop included antitank weapons and added that the Kurdish forces were expecting more airdrops in the coming days.

In his announcement about Turkish help for the Iraqi Kurds, Cavusoglu didn't specify when the peshmerga would be allowed passage into Syria, but a Turkish official said the border would be opened to them immediately.

Turkey has been reluctant to empower the Kurds to this point because the two sides have spent decades battling over autonomy.

"Let me say very respectfully to our allies the Turks that we understand fully the fundamentals of their opposition and ours to any kind of terrorist group and particularly obviously the challenges they face with respect the P.K.K.," U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said, referring to the Kurdistan Workers' Party. "But we have undertaken a coalition effort to degrade and destroy ISIL, and ISIL is presenting itself in major numbers in this place called Kobani."