US and European leaders have warned Turkey’s president to use restraint in his increasingly wide-reaching crackdown against plotters of Friday’s coup amid widespread alarm at the speed of arrests of military officers and prosecutors.
“We urge the government of Turkey to uphold the highest standard of respect . . . for the rule of law,” John Kerry, US secretary of state, said after meeting his EU counterparts in Brussels. “We support bringing the perpetrators of the coup to justice, but we caution a reach that goes beyond that.”
Some EU leaders went still further. The European Commission official responsible for Turkey policy accused President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of having a prepared list of targets for arrest even before the coup was launched.