The EU also piled pressure on Ankara not to reintroduce the death penalty for those who carried out the coup attempt, after Erdogan said on Sunday that he was ready to discuss the possibility.
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Turkish prosecutors were questioning more than 100 senior military leaders Monday and former air force commander Gen.
27 Turkish generals and admirals were detained on suspicion of being involved in the coup.
U.S. Ambassador to Turkey John Bass issued a rebuke of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s accusations that the United States is harboring Gulen.
The Dogan news agency said the attacker was killed by police while two other people were arrested. Oil prices also rose after the coup plotters said they had seized control of the country, whose neighbours include Syria, Iraq and Iran.
The government is looking for connections between those arrested and what President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says are strong ties with US -exiled Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen.
Federica Mogherini, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs, said foreign ministers will send a “strong message” that the rule of law and the democratic system of checks and balances must be respected in Turkey in the wake of the putsch failure.
A total of 316 of the detainees have been remanded in custody, he noted.
Kerry called on Ankara to exercise restraint following the failed coup.
The EU commissioner dealing with Turkey’s long-stalled bid for membership of the bloc said it appeared the Government had already prepared a list before the coup of people to be rounded up.
Yildirim said that it was not correct to make a hasty decision about the death penalty, but Turkey can not ignore the demands of its own people.
Turkish officials say that almost 8,000 police officers have been suspended, reportedly on suspicion of having links to the coup attempt. Merkel’s spokesman, Steffen Seibert told reporters that “the institution of the death penalty can only mean that such a country could not be a member”.
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“I would like our government to stop providing a safe haven to Fethullah Gulen and I want him delivered to Turkey”, the petition’s headline said. That message was echoed by Germany, the union’s biggest state.
