“The coup was prevented, but we can’t say the threat is gone”, said Fikri Isik, according to the state-run Anadolu news agency. In particular, he said he’ll be monitoring whether President Erdogan tries to push ahead with long-held plans to amend the constitution in order to centralize power further for himself. Erdogan has blamed USA -based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen for orchestrating the attempted power grab.
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Western leaders have pushed Turkey to follow the rule of law as the massive retaliatory purge adds to existing concerns about human rights and democracy in the strategic North Atlantic Treaty Organisation country.
“At this stage, there could even be a questioning of our friendship”.
Turkey has ambitions to join the European Union, but a revival of the death penalty would freeze any discussion of membership.
Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said those involved with the failed coup would “receive every punishment they deserve”. On Monday, Kerry explicitly said Turkey must send “evidence”, not allegations.
“We need to see genuine evidence that withstands the standard of scrutiny that exists in many countries’ system of law with respect to the issue of extradition and if it meets that standard, there is nothing, there is no interest we have in standing in the way of appropriately honoring the treaty that we have with Turkey with respect to extradition”, Kerry said.
Bass on Monday said that if Turkey to submit such a request “it will be considered under the terms of the U.S. -Turkey extradition agreement”.
Supporters of Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan hold an effigy of US -based cleric Fethullah Gulen during a pro-government demonstration in Ankara, Turkey, on July 17. Around 265 people dead and more than 1,400 were wounded in the coup attemp.
However, they were stopped as people flooded onto the streets in support of the leader, who was democratically elected. He had indicated a shake-up of the military was imminent and had also taken steps to increase his influence over the judiciary.
And Jean Asselborn, the foreign minister of Luxembourg, said relations between Turkey and the European Union could be “destroyed” if Erdogan overreaches.
Security forces are still searching for some of the soldiers involved in the coup attempt in various cities and rural areas, but there is no risk of a renewed bid to seize power, said an official.
Turkey’s pro-Kurdish HDP opposition, parliament’s third largest party, said it would not support any government proposal to reintroduce the death penalty.
With Turkey’s big cities still on edge, Turkish security forces killed an armed attacker who shot at them from a vehicle outside the Ankara courthouse where suspected coup plotters were appearing before judges.
Kerry and Mogherini spoke after a meeting in Brussels that also included the bloc’s 28 foreign ministers, and after a weekend when Turkey’s government responded to a coup attempt by rounding up some 6,000 people, including hundreds of judges and prosecutors.
Meanwhile, a senior official said F-16 jets guarded the Turkish airspace overnight, in a sign that authorities feared that the threat against the government was not yet over.
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A Turkish official acknowledged that Gulen’s followers in the armed forces had been under investigation for some time, but denied that an arrest list had been prepared in advance.
