The leaders of the European
Parliament's two largest groups called on Tuesday for the European Union to
halt membership talks with Turkey because of its post-coup purges.
A woman adjusts the Turkish flag next to the European Union flag at the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels in this January 15, 2015 file photo. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir
"Our message to Turkey is
very clear: accession negotiations should be frozen immediately," said
Manfred Weber, the head of the largest faction in the European Parliament, the
center-right European People's Party.
He was echoed by Gianni
Pitella, the leader of the socialist group, the parliament's second biggest:
"We want to freeze the accession talks."
More than 110,000 people in
Turkey - including soldiers, academics, judges, journalists and Kurdish leaders
- have been suspended from their positions or dismissed over their alleged
backing for the plotters of a failed military coup in July.
Some 36,000 have been arrested
and media outlets have been shut.
"Turkey under Mr Erdogan
is more and more drifting towards an authoritarian regime," Pitella said,
referring to Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan.
"Our political message
towards Turkey is that human rights, civil rights, democracy are non negotiable
if you want to be part of the EU.
Erdogan, exasperated with the
EU's intensified criticism of his rights record, has said the bloc would have
to "live with the consequences" should it stop the talks and that
Ankara could instead join an security alliance run by Russia and China.
The post-coup crackdown has
taken the EU aback, annulling a period of warmer tone between Turkey and the
bloc, which had promised as recently as last March to speed up Ankara's
accession talks in exchange for its help in keeping migrants away from European
shores.
This cooperation, critical for
the EU, is still going on but some in the EU worry it could eventually fall
victim to the spiraling recriminations.
Erdogan, who blames the EU for
not showing enough understanding for the gravity of the situation in Turkey,
said he could put the EU talks to a national referendum next year.
Turkey still hopes to win
visa-free travel to the EU but earlier promises of granting the privilege to
Ankara by the end of the year now seem distant.
Among EU countries, Austria and Luxembourg have led
calls to stop Turkey's membership talks, which have only made very limited
progress over 11 years in any case.
But Germany, France and most of the other EU states
for now back continued engagement and fear putting at risk Turkey's
collaboration on migration.
All stress, however, that the talks would come to an
end should Turkey reinstate the death penalty.
(Additional reporting by Tom Koerkemeier, writing by
Gabriela Baczynska Editing by Jeremy Gaunt.)
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