BEIRUT // As the Turkish government’s purge of thousands of officials, soldiers and police officers continued on Monday, the United States and European Union turned increasingly critical of the Nato country’s response to Friday’s failed coup.
Six thousand soldiers, 750 judges and 650 civilians are being held in connection with the military coup attempt, according to Turkish prime minister Binali Yildirim. And amid the mass detentions, supporters of president Recep Tayyip Erdogan have called for a reinstatement of the death penalty – a move Mr Erdogan says he is open to.
On Monday, EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogeherini warned Ankara that Turkey would be barred from joining the EU if it reinstated the death penalty.
“Let me be very clear ... no country can become an EU state if it introduces the death penalty,” she said. “This is no excuse to take the country away from the fundamental rights and the rule of law, and we will be extremely vigilant on that.”
Her warning came as Turkey’s interior ministry suspended more than 8,000 police officers pending investigations and removed 30 governors and more than 50 high-ranking civil servants from their posts. Also on Monday, the finance ministry said it had suspended 1,500 employees for suspected ties to Fethullah Gulen, the US-based cleric who Ankara says was behind the coup attempt.
At Turkey’s request, Saudi authorities also detained the Turkish military attaché to Kuwait on Monday for his suspected involvement. Mikail Gullu was arrested at an airport in the eastern Saudi city of Dammam as he attempted to board a flight to Germany.
The EU’s foreign ministers, who met in Brussels on Monday, said the bloc “calls for the full observance of Turkey’s constitutional order and stresses the importance of the rule of law prevailing”.
Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg, meanwhile, said Turkey must fully respect the rule of law and democratic freedoms, just like any other alliance member.
In a statement issued after a phone call to Mr Erdogan on Monday, he said it was “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”.
Mr Erdogan has described his government’s purge of those alleged to be involved in the attempted coup as efforts to “cleanse” a “cancer” or “virus” from Turkey’s state institutions. But the large number of detainees has raised scepticism over whether all of them were connected.
The EU commissioner handling Turkey’s membership bid, Johannes Hahn, on Monday expressed concern over the mass arrests following the coup, saying it looked like the government had already decided on a list of people to arrest beforehand.
“It looks as if something has been prepared. The lists are available, which indicates it was prepared and to be used at a certain stage,” he said. “I’m very concerned. It is exactly what we feared.”
Despite increasing EU criticism towards Turkey, a spokesman for the German government said that there were no indications that Ankara had changed its position on a deal it made with the bloc earlier this year to stem the flow of migrants to Europe.
Turkey again demanded on Monday that Washington turn over Mr Gulen but appeared to be recalcitrant about providing Washington with the evidence it has requested.
"I say to the US administration, a group attempting to end democracy is proof enough," said Turkish prime minister Binali Yildirim, according to the pro-government Daily Sabah newspaper.
The US secretary of state John Kerry previously said the US will examine any evidence Turkey presents regarding Mr Gulen, but that Ankara had not yet submitted a formal request for extradition.
The request that the US hand over a resident based on Turkey’s word alone, and not on evidence, has raised tensions between the two important Nato allies.
Mr Yildirim said on Saturday that any country which stood by Mr Gulen would be “no friend” and at “war” with Turkey.
Turkey’s deputy prime minister Mehmet Simsek on Monday tried to play down some of the more aggressive statements toward Washington in recent days, saying that Ankara did not want to damage bilateral relations with the US.
Mr Kerry on Monday assured Turkey that the US stood “squarely on the side” of the government, but warned it to be careful in handling the aftermath of the failed coup.
“We will certainly support bringing the perpetrators of the coup to justice but we also caution against a reach that goes well beyond that,” he said.
Turkey’s government has maintained that it was a small military junta associated with Mr Gulen who carried out the coup. But the number of suspects – more than 9,000 arrested in recent days and almost as many suspensions – appears to contradict that characterisation.
On Monday night, WikiLeaks announced it would soon release more than 100,000 emails and 500,000 leaked documents related to Turkey’s political power structure.
“AKP supporters should pay attention,” the organisation tweeted tauntingly, referring to supporters of Mr Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party. “Our pending megaleak of docs both helps & harms AKP. Are you ready to find it all?”
jwood@thenational.ae
* With additional reporting by Reuters and Agence France-Presse
