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Prime Minister Theresa May says Britain is Turkey's "true friend," but has urged President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to uphold democracy and human rights.

Erdogan met May at 10 Downing St. on Tuesday, the final day of his three-day trip to the U.K.

Kurdish activists and human rights groups protested outside the prime minister's office before the meeting, condemning Erdogan's increasingly autocratic rule.

His government has arrested more than 50,000 people and fired more than 100,000 from public posts after a failed 2016 coup.

May says it is important "that in the defense of democracy, which has been facing extraordinary pressures from the failed coup, instability across the border from Syria and from Kurdish terrorism, Turkey does not lose sight of the values it is seeking to defend."