this situation in syria, shep. >> shepard: widely seen as poorly handled in the early going have the president and the prime minister of turkey been in contact since all of this started? >> u.s. officials say so far there has not been direct contact between the president and prime minister. interesting that when they had those talks here in mid play at the white house, one of the concessions president obama got from the prime minister, prime minister was to get turkish support for a upcoming conference in geneva to try and deal with the future of syria. in terms of making sure that if assad does go, president assad does go in syria, there will be some sort of peaceful transition, again, the idea that prime minister will now be focused on a peaceful transition in syria is lost in the fact he has got major problems on his own hands right now. this is a big concern for the white house tonight, shep, because they have already got this instability in syria. instability, instability spreading into turkey, a key u.s. al fly that region is a desperate situation