Turkey's right to try coup plotters 'legitimate': EU

STRASBOURG, France

Turkey has a legitimate right to bring perpetrators of the July 15 coup attempt and terrorist attacks to justice, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said Tuesday.

Addressing Members of the European Parliament as part of a debate over Turkey-EU relations, Mogherini said: “In the night of July15… during the night of coup attempt, we stood to the side of Turkey’s democracy and the democratic institutions.

“The Turkish authorities have a legitimate right to hold the perpetrators of the coup and of terrorist attacks accountable for their actions.

“We’ve also called on all political parties to unequivocally condemn terrorist violence.”

About the progress made in EU-Turkey talks, she said: “Our negotiations with Turkey are at a crossroad because Turkey itself is at a crossroad.

“The accession process has achieved progress on many fields.”

However, the European Parliament's main groups said they will vote this week to freeze membership talks with Turkey. "No business as usual with Turkey, we support a freeze of EU accession negotiations," Manfred Weber, head of the center-right European People's Party, the largest group in the parliament, said.

Gianni Pittella, leader of the Socialist group, the second biggest in the assembly, added: "Turkey's EU accession talks must be temporarily frozen. There are not the conditions to proceed now."

Liberal leader Guy Verhofstadt, who was the former prime minister of Belgium, said his group too was "asking to suspend the negotiations with Turkey."

The EU foreign policy chief warned that halting Turkey's accession process would be a "lose-lose” scenario.

There has been division among the bloc over Turkey’s membership. France and Germany support negotiations but countries such as Luxembourg and Belgium are more critical of Turkey’s bid and Austria is strongly opposed to continued talks.