Press Gaggle by the Press Secretary en route Austin, Texas, 3/11/16

  I want to ask about two different things in the story. The first is President Erdogan. President Obama’s opinion of him is -- President Obama reportedly believes that he is a failure, authoritarian, and hadn’t done enough militarily to intervene in their neighbor, Syria. Is that an accurate kind of representation of the President’s view and what he conveyed in those interviews?

MR. EARNEST: Let me just say that what our view of Turkey has been is that we did spend some period of time urging the Turks to engage more effectively with our counter-ISIL coalition. And over the last nine months or so, that’s what they’ve done. We have seen the Turks give access to the United States and our partners to military facilities inside of Turkey that has made military operations against ISIL in Syria more efficient and more effective. We have seen the Turks take specific steps to more effectively seal off their border between Turkey and Syria. Now, there’s more work that we’d like to see them do, but there’s no denying that they have made important progress in sealing off the border.

Turkey has also borne a significant burden when it comes to Syrian migrants fleeing violence in their country. And we have certainly been appreciative of all that the Turks have done to try to meet the needs of those people. And the United States has provided the Turks significant financial assistance to do that. And we have made the case that Turkey should take these steps because of the obvious national security consequences for Turkey. All this instability along their border is destabilizing and not good for the country. 

So they had their own interests for intervening, and we made clear that we would stand by our NATO ally as they did it. We have done that. And that has served the interests of Turkey, it’s served the interests of the United States, and it served the interests of our counter-ISIL coalition quite effectively.

Q  So is it fair to read from your silence that you don’t dispute the notion that President Obama sees President Erdogan as a failed authoritarian?

MR. EARNEST: Well, what is also true is, even though we had been able to effectively cooperate with the Turks when it comes to Syria and a whole host of areas, we also have expressed our concern with some aspects of the political climate inside of Turkey. There are some ways in which we feel the Turkey government has not been sufficiently supportive of universal human rights -- the kind of human rights that we obviously deeply value here in the United States and that we advocate for around the world. 

Let me give you one example. Recently, the Turkish government announced essentially the takeover of Zaman newspaper in Turkey. This is one of the largest media outlets inside of Turkey and it has essentially been taken over by the government. Here in the United States, we deeply value the freedom of the press -- in fact, that’s one of the main reasons we’re having this conversation right now -- and we are concerned when we see those kinds of values be so obviously trampled upon. And we have not hesitated to speak out when we see it, and we have not hesitated to speak out in those instances in Turkey where it’s clear it’s happening.

Q  The other thing that sort of piqued my interest in the story was that Secretary Kerry has reportedly repeatedly advocated sort of a covert airstrike against targets belonging to the Assad regime. The President also reportedly has sort of denied those requests. But I’m wondering if you could rule out the possibility that the U.S. would ever take that type of airstrike against the Assad regime, especially without kind of getting prior congressional authorization, which is something that you guys have emphasized as an important part of your strategy there.

MR. EARNEST: Well, let me just say that our focus inside of Syria has been focused on degrading and ultimately destroying ISIL. And there are significant military resources that have been expended in that effort, and we’ve made important progress inside of Syria. By supporting forces on the ground and carrying out military airstrikes, we’ve retaken about \*20 11 percent of the territory in Syria that ISIL previously held -- that’s populated territory. And we’ve done that by implementing a strategy that the President has laid out of supporting forces on the ground who are fighting for their own country.

We have been clear and unambiguous about the fact that President Obama does not believe that there is a military solution that can be imposed on Syria. There are a variety of problems that are plaguing that country. And what is required to address those many problems inside of Syria is a long overdue political transition.

And the United States, Secretary Kerry, in particular, has led the diplomatic effort to try to bring the world together, the interested parties together to try to bring the parties inside of Syria together to organize the opposition and to organize and facilitate conversations with the regime, and bring about a transition inside of Syria that would allow a government that has the confidence of the Syrian people and reflects the will and ambitions of the Syrian people. That is the ultimate solution to the situation in Syria, and that’s what our efforts in Syria have been focused on.

Q  So despite all that, you won’t rule out the possibility that the U.S. can take military action against the Assad regime in some capacity?

MR. EARNEST: I think that I’m not going to get into any private conversations between Secretary Kerry and President Obama. But what’s clear is that Secretary Kerry himself has probably spent more time than anyone else trying to bring along all of the parties to get these political talks on track so that we can address the political turmoil inside of Syria that has contributed to the rise of ISIL and the significant humanitarian disaster inside of Syria that has not just destabilized the region, but has had an even destabilizing impact on Europe.

Q  German intelligence services and U.K. media outlets have apparently got their hands on the names of around 22,000 Islamic State -- or people who are believed to have traveled to Syria and Iraq to fight with the Islamic State. Does the U.S. have that intelligence for themselves? Is it real? Is it actionable? Could it be a significant breakthrough in kind of dismantling ISIS?

MR. EARNEST: Unfortunately, Andrew, I don’t have a whole lot on this. I can tell you that we’re obviously aware of the reports -- they’ve gotten quite a bit of attention. And obviously part of our counter-ISIL coalition efforts are devoted to intelligence cooperation and intelligence-sharing, and that includes an effective intelligence relationship with the Germans. That’s enhanced national security in the United States and Germany and has contributed to our campaign against ISIL. But beyond that, there’s not much I can say.