Turkey in no position to become EU member any time soon: Juncker

Turkey is in no position to become a European Union member any time soon and all negotiations for it to join will stop immediately if it reintroduces the death penalty, EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said on Monday. Turkish authorities have suspended, detained or placed under investigation more than 60,000 soldiers, police, judges, teachers, civil servants and others since a failed military coup. “I believe that Turkey, in its current state, is not in a position to become a member any time soon and not even over a longer period,” Juncker said on French television France 2. He said that a country that included the death penalty in its legislative arsenal had no place in the European Union.

The state cannot be governed by grudge, anger and prejudice. Those responsible for the coup should be tried lawfully, with the understanding of abiding by the rule of law.

CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu

He was speaking a day after Turks staged a mass pro-democracy rally following the attempted coup. Tens of thousands marched through Istanbul in support of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Human Rights group Amnesty International said it had received credible evidence of detainees being subjected to beatings and torture, including rape, since the coup attempt. “It is absolutely imperative that the Turkish authorities halt these abhorrent practices and allow international monitors to visit all these detainees in the places they are being held,” said Amnesty’s Europe director John Dalhuisen in a statement.

Juncker Turkey