Both Mogherini and Kerry reiterated the trans-Atlantic support for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s democratically elected government.
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“The coup was prevented, but we can’t say the threat is gone”, said Fikri Isik, according to the state-run Anadolu news agency.
A group within Turkey’s military attempted to overthrow Erdogan’s government late Friday.
A senior security official told Reuters 8,000 police officers, including in the capital Ankara and the biggest city Istanbul, had been removed from their posts on suspicion of links to Friday’s coup bid by a faction in the army.
Erdogan flew into Istanbul early Saturday where he was greeted by a sea of supporters, and shortly after the government announced it had regained control and that the coup had failed. More than 1,500 people were wounded.
About 6,000 people have been arrested since Saturday, including army commanders, constitutional judges and president Erdogan’s own aide-de-camp.
The air force was given orders to shoot down any military helicopters over Istanbul, the source said.
They are believed to be among dozens of soldiers who surrendered during the failed military coup over the weekend.
Going further than Mogherini or Kerry, the European Union commissioner leading negotiations with Turkey on its accession bid suggested Erdogan was exploiting the crisis to eliminate opponents who may or may not have been involved in the coup.
During the attempted coup, calls rang out from mosques across the country, urging believers to take to the street to defend their country.
“All of these (judiciary officials) did not necessarily have first-degree knowledge about this pro-junta initiative”. Had they succeeded (with the coup) it is clear that these people would have been included into this business.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the government have accused the United States -based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, a former ally whom Erdogan, of trying to create a “parallel structure” within the courts, police, armed forces and media, and of orchestrating the coup.
Gulen, who lives in Saylorsburgh, Pennsylvania, espouses a philosophy that blends a mystical form of Islam with democracy. He is a former Erdogan ally turned bitter enemy who has been put on trial in his absence in Turkey, where the government has labelled his movement a terrorist organisation.
She also said: “The democratic and legitimate institutions needed to be protected”.
Yildirim said those involved with the failed coup “will receive every punishment they deserve”.
With expectations growing of heavy measures against dissent, European politicians warned Erdogan that the coup attempt did not give him a blank cheque to disregard the rule of law.
Gulen, however, has strongly denied any involvement in or knowledge of the coup.
Going farther than any other diplomat, the EU commissioner leading negotiations with Turkey on its bid to join the union suggested Erdogan was exploiting the crisis to eliminate opponents who may or may not have been involved in the coup.
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Similar demonstrations were held outside the president’s residence in Istanbul, the mainly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir and the coastal cities of Izmir and Antalya, according to local media reports and footage.
