Speaking in Brussels where she has been meeting with European foreign ministers, Mogherini said that Turkey’s return of the death penalty would bar its EU membership.
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In strongly worded remarks, German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert said on Monday that Turkey can not join the European Union if it reinstates the death penalty.
The EU and U.S. “urge the government of Turkey to uphold the highest standards of respect for the nation s democratic institutions and the rule of law”, he added.
He noted that North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, which Turkey has been a member of since 1952, “has a requirement with respect to democracy and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation will indeed measure very carefully what is happening”. “Obviously a lot of people have been arrested and arrested very quickly”, Kerry said.
“I would like to thank you personally, and through you the USA administration of President Obama for the strong message and clear message that we always hear from you on the need for a strong and united Europe”, she said.
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.
“We believe there is some mythology that has been attached to it and it’s our job to make sure that we adequately inform people about the ways in which the facts of the TTIP actually work for the people of Europe”, Kerry said, adding that he planned to lay out those facts in several speeches in the coming months.
As for Fethullah Gulen’s hand over to Turkey, as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Kerry repeated that the United States stands to the side of the elected government in Turkey.
“This is an obligation”, he added, stressing that Turkey had ratified human rights protocols which “abolish death penalty under all circumstances”.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said that “the rule of law must prevail”. “At the same time we have to be vigilant that the Turkish authorities don’t put in place a system which turns back democracy”.
Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders said he was also concerned about the arrests of judges and also about President Tayyip Erdogan’s suggestion of reintroducing the death penalty for plotters.
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Austrian Chancellor also warned Turkey saying that a reinstatement would mean “a departure from the basic democratic consensus”, and as a result, “Turkey could not be a partner” in the union. But on arriving Monday, he adopted a conciliatory tone.
