Is Turkey going to execute thousands of people over their failed coup?

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he would consider reinstating the death penalty if leaders were to approve it in the parliament. "There is a clear crime of treason and your request can never be rejected by our government," he told CNN through a translator. "But of course it will take a parliamentary decision for that to take action in the form of a constitutional measure, so leaders will have to get together and discuss it. And if they accept to discuss it, then I as president will approve any decision that comes out of the parliament."

Thousands of people have been arrested in connection to the failed military coup that was staged Friday; state-run media reports that 8,777 officers in the Turkish Ministry of Interior have so far been removed from office.

Turkey has lobbied to be included in the European Union, but would forfeit its chances of joining if it were to reinstate the death penalty, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said Monday. Capital punishment was abolished in Turkey in 2004, with the last execution in 1984.

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Erdogan has vowed that those behind the coup would "pay a heavy price for this act of treason."