BRUSSELS — The European Parliament voted Thursday to suspend talks with Turkey on EU membership, the most forceful response yet to the crackdown by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan against political opponents.
The vote is not binding because the decision ultimately rests with the governments of the European Union’s member countries. But the vote aims to ratchet up the pressure on Erdogan, whose leadership has taken an even more authoritarian turn since a failed coup attempt in July.
“The government’s actions are further diverting Turkey from its European path,’’ European lawmakers said in the resolution, which passed with 479 votes in favor, 37 against, and 107 abstentions.
The resolution condemned “disproportionate repressive measures’’ by the Turkish government.
More than 100,000 public workers, including police officers, teachers, soldiers, and others, have been fired for what the Turkish authorities have said are connections to the coup plot or to terrorists. Hundreds of organizations have been forced to close, including many news outlets.
Ending the negotiations even temporarily would further jeopardize a fragile deal reached with Turkey in March that has dramatically stemmed the flow of migrants to Greece from Turkey.
The influx had threatened to overwhelm some European governments, and it bolstered the fortunes of populist political movements. Many European governments are concerned that the migratory flow could resume unchecked if relations with Turkey sour further.
Erdogan’s government has already suggested that it may pull out of the membership process if there is no progress by year’s end. This week, he said a vote to curtail the talks would mean the European Parliament was siding with terrorists.
Turkey’s prime minister, Binali Yildirim, told reporters Thursday that relations between the two sides were strained and the vote would not have much consequence.
“It is a relationship going grudgingly, with difficulty,’’ he said. “The EU should understand this; it should decide whether it wants to shape its vision for the future with Turkey or without Turkey.’’
Leaders of the main political groups at the Parliament said the EU had to stand by its humanitarian values and ensure Turkey did not reinstate the death penalty, which Erdogan has vowed to approve. A ban on capital punishment is a condition of EU membership.
Some of the lawmakers said the EU should not allow itself to be held hostage by Turkey over migration and should instead find ways to share the burden of looking after the influx.
A formal, binding procedure to suspend the Turkish accession talks has not been invoked by the vote. For that to happen, the European Commission or one-third of European Union member states would need to make a proposal to do so, and a majority of member states would then to vote in favor of the measure for it to pass. Turkey would also be granted the opportunity to be heard.
