Demonstrators rally at Taksim square in Istanbul in support to the Turkish government following a failed coup attempt | Ozan Kose/AFP/Getty Images
EU officials warn Turkey against overreacting to coup attempt
Foreign ministers say Ankara must stick to rule of law.
Top EU officials and diplomats expressed concern Monday over the Turkish government’s reaction to an attempted coup over the weekend, insisting that Ankara respect the rule of law.
“We must be vigilant so that the Turkish authorities don’t put in place a political system which turns away from democracy,” France’s Jean-Marc Ayrault told reporters ahead of a meeting of EU foreign affairs ministers in Brussels. “If some people breach that rule of law, justice must be passed, but in an institutional framework, and not by measures that could lead to an authoritarian power.”
Ayrault was one of several EU officials to urge restraint in the tense political situation in Turkey after the failed military coup. They reacted strongly to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s decision to arrest more than 6,000 people, including senior judges, as well as his comments about reinstating the death penalty.
Johannes Hahn, the EU’s enlargement commissioner, said he was “very much” concerned about the arrests of judges, saying it “is particularly what we had feared.”
Asked whether he thought Erdoğan might be taking advantage of the situation to arrest people, Hahn responded: “At least something has been prepared. The lists were available already after the event,” referring to the list of arrest targets after the failed coup.
Turkey is under pressure to reform several of its laws in order to fulfill the terms of an agreement with the EU on stemming the flow of migration to Europe, as well as in its longer-term bid to become a member of the union. While Turkey’s allies in NATO and the EU rallied to defend Erdoğan’s democratically elected government during the coup attempt, they also said they would insist that he adhere to the rule of law.
“We have to ask the Turks to react in a proportionate way,” said Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders, calling the attacks on the country’s parliament “unacceptable.” Reynders said Erdoğan’s comments on reinstating the death penalty after the failed coup could cause “problems in [Turkey’s] relationship with the EU.”
Elmar Brok, a German MEP who chairs the European Parliament’s foreign affairs committee, told Handelsblatt that if “President Erdoğan uses the situation to limit constitutional rights further, the entry negotiations will become difficult or even impossible.”
Boris Johnson, the newly appointed British foreign secretary, called for “moderation and restraint on all sides” in response to the failed coup.
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