Turkey will not be able to join the European Union if it reintroduces the death penalty, a senior EU official said Monday.
"Let me be ... clear on one thing: no country can become an EU member state if it introduces the death penalty," EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said.
Talks of reintroducing the death penalty have revived in Turkey following a failed military coup attempt over the weekend, in which at least 290 people were killed.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has made clear he will show no mercy.
Just days after a failed military coup that broke out into deadly violence, talks of reintroducing the death penalty have revived and thousands have been arrested, many of whom were detained in horse stables, stripped to the waist in humiliation.
Erdogan is wasting no time to "cleanse" the country's security forces of "viruses," as he put it, vowing that those behind the attempt to overthrow his government "will pay a very heavy price for this act of treason."
Among the arrested are 103 generals and admirals, a third of the general-rank command of the Turkish military, according to state-run Anadolu news agency.
A total of 8,777 officers from the Turkish Ministry of Interior have been removed from office, Anadolu reported, adding that the majority were police officers.
