AP Photo Obama 'troubled' by Turkish leader's crackdowns

President Barack Obama says he's troubled by the direction Turkey's leader is taking his country, especially when it comes to freedom of the press. He also is warning Iran to avoid "provocative" actions such as ballistic missile tests if it wants to benefit from sanctions relief offered under the nuclear deal it reached with world powers last year.

In a news conference at the end of the Nuclear Security Summit on Friday, Obama was asked whether he thought Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was an authoritarian. The question came after Erdogan's bodyguards scuffled with reporters and protesters outside a D.C. think tank Thursday and amid a crackdown on journalists in Turkey.


Obama didn't answer the question directly, and he stressed how critical Turkey, a NATO member that borders Syria, is as an ally. But he also said he'd told Erdogan that "there are some trends within Turkey that I’ve been troubled with."

"I've said to President Erdogan to remind him that he came into office with a promise of democracy, and Turkey has historically been a country in which deep Islamic faith has lived side by side with modernity and an increasing openness," Obama said. "And that's the legacy that he should pursue rather than a strategy that involves repression of information and shutting down democratic debate."

The comments, however cautious, were nonetheless striking because U.S. officials generally try to avoid offending Turkey, whose help is considered crucial in battling the Islamic State, the terrorist network that has grabbed parts of Syria and Iraq. That Obama went as far as he did indicates the serious concern within his administration about Erdogan's autocratic tendencies.

Numerous journalists have been arrested in Turkey in recent months, while the government also took over the popular daily Zaman. Erdogan insists the arrested journalists are linked to Kurdish and other terrorist groups, and that that is why they are being prosecuted. Some of the reporters are accused of supporting the Gulen movement, which Erdogan casts as an opposition effort that has infiltrated the government.

"I think that the approach they've been taking toward the press is one that could lead Turkey down a path that would be very troubling," Obama said, while also noting his concerns about freedom of speech and religion in the Muslim country, where hundreds of people have been charged with the crime of "insulting" the president.

Obama also urged Iran not to violate the spirit of the nuclear deal, even if it is technically abiding by it. The comments were aimed at Iran's testing of ballistic missiles. Obama's aides say such tests don't officially violate the nuclear deal struck last July, but that they may run afoul of U.N. resolutions.