Purges in Turkey chilling EU talks

BRUSSELS — The Netherlands asked other European Union member countries to formally warn the Turkish government that the purges there could lead to the freezing of membership talks.

The Netherlands is the second nation in Europe — Austria was the first — to openly balk over the talks, a response to the firing of tens of thousands of Turkish soldiers, civil servants, police officers, judges and other groups after a failed coup in July.

The warning by the Dutch, made at a meeting of representatives of Europe’s national governments Thursday, is likely to anger Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who last week threatened to scrap cooperation with Europe on limiting the flow of refugees.

Erdogan’s threat came after the European Parliament passed a nonbinding resolution to halt the talks temporarily.

For that to happen, the European Commission, the executive body of the European Union, or one-third of the member states would need to make a formal proposal to do so, and a majority of the member states would then have to vote in favor of the measure.