U.S., EU urge Turkey to uphold democracy after failed coup

PanARMENIAN.Net - The European Union and the United States expressed alarm Monday, July 18 with Turkey's response to a failed coup, telling the NATO member and EU aspirant that it must uphold democracy and human rights as it pursues the military officers and anyone else involved in the plot, the Associated Press reports.

"This is no excuse to take the country away from fundamental rights and the rule of law, and we will be extremely vigilant on that," EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said at a joint news conference with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.

The top American diplomat said Turkey must "uphold the highest standards for the country's democratic institutions and the rule of law."

While he recognized the need to apprehend the coup plotters, Kerry said: "We caution against a reach that goes beyond that."

Kerry and Mogherini spoke after a meeting in Brussels that also included the bloc's 28 foreign ministers, and after a weekend when Turkey's government responded to the coup attempt by rounding up some 6,000 people, including hundreds of judges and prosecutors, AP says.

Mogherini said the talks on Turkey's bid to join the European Union would end if Ankara restores the death penalty, as some are suggesting. That message was echoed by Germany, the union's biggest state.

"The institution of the death penalty can only mean that such a country could not be a member," Steffen Seibert, spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel, said in Berlin.

The coup plotters sent warplanes firing on key government installations and tanks rolling into major cities on Friday night. But the rebellion wasn't supported by the military's top brass and was quashed by loyal government forces and masses of civilians who took to the streets. More than 200 people were killed and more than 1,500 wounded.