“We will certainly support bringing the perpetrators of the coup to justice but we also caution against a reach that goes well beyond that”, Kerry told a press conference with Mogherini.
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“Being part of a unique community of values, it is essential for Turkey, like all other allies, to ensure full respect for democracy and its institutions, the constitutional order, the rule of law and fundamental freedoms”, Stoltenberg said in a statement. At least 294 people were killed and more than 1,400 wounded.
The Council of Europe warned Turkey on Monday that restoring capital punishment after an attempted coup would be incompatible with its membership of the pan-European human rights organisation.
“Reintroduction of the death penalty would prevent successful negotiations to join the European Union”, said German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, a position echoed by his French counterpart Jean-Marc Ayrault in less direct terms.
But both Mogherini and Kerry reiterated the trans-Atlantic support for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s democratically elected government. But they also revealed their deepening frustration with his government’s actions over the last three days.
After the Turkish government said they had took back control of the country, the pledged to severely punish those responsible for the uprising. Turkey says Gülen masterminded the coup attempt. It appears, he added, as if Turkey had “prepared” arrest lists of political opponents and was waiting for the right time to act.
German Commissioner Günther Oettinger already commented on a crucial issue in the relationship between the European Union and Turkey. Merkel’s spokesman said the quashed coup hasn’t affected an EU-Turkish arrangement for stopping migrants arriving by sea. He said authorities had always been investigating the movement led by Fethullah Gulen, a reclusive but influential Turkish cleric who has lived in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania for almost two decades. But he stressed that the US needed to see “evidence, not allegations” of Gulen’s responsibility.
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