EU watching Turkey state of emergency 'with concern'

The European Union expressed "concern" Thursday over Turkey's decision to impose a state of emergency following the attempted coup, and urged the country to respect human rights and the rule of law.

Turkey earlier announced a three-month state of emergency, strengthening state powers to round up suspects behind the failed military coup and suspending a key European rights convention.

"We are following the developments regarding the state of emergency Turkey has declared after the attempted coup, which the European Union condemned, very closely and with concern," said a statement jointly issued by the bloc's foreign affair's chief Federica Mogherini and enlargement commissioner Johannes Hahn.

"This declaration comes in the wake of the recent unacceptable decisions on the education system, judiciary and the media... we call on Turkish authorities to respect under any circumstances the rule of law, human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the right of all individuals concerned to a fair trial," the strongly worded statement added.

Turkey's moves came in defiance of growing global alarm over the extent of legal retribution after the coup that unsuccessfully tried to unseat President Recep Tayyip Erdogan but ended with some 50,000 alleged sympathisers in state offices losing their jobs and around 9,200 suspects detained.