Luxemburg's Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn | John Thys/AFP via Getty Images Luxembourg’s Asselborn: Turkey is using Nazi-era tactics The EU country’s foreign minister urged the bloc to impose economic sanctions on Erdoğan’s government.

Luxembourg's Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn, in an interview with Deutschlandfunk Monday, compared the Turkish government's dismissal of civil servants to methods used by the German Nazi regime, and recommended that the European Union impose economic sanctions.

Since the failed July 15 coup that killed more than 240 people, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has detained, suspended or dismissed more than 110,000 public servants as part of a wider crackdown on his political opponents.

Dismissed civil servants have seen their names published in the official government gazette — making future employment difficult — and their passports canceled.

"To put it bluntly, these are methods that were used during the Nazi era and that's a really, really bad development ... that the European Union simply cannot accept," Asselborn said, adding the arrests of politicians and journalists were unworthy of a country that is a member of NATO and the European Council.

Fifty percent of Turkey's exports go to the EU and 60 percent of investment in Turkey comes from the bloc. Sanctions are the only mechanism that can counteract the "unbearable human rights situation," Asselborn said.

Berlin would not participate in a discussion of sanctions, Steffen Seibert, a spokesperson for German Chancellor Angela Merkel, said Monday.

"We have to make it clear to Turkey what impact the repression of the press and the repression of the opposition will have on its relations with the European Union," Seibert told a press conference. "That's why it's important to keep the channels of communication open."

Turkey has warned it will cancel its deal with the EU to stem the tide of refugees crossing into Europe from the Middle East if the EU does not hold up its promise of visa-free travel for Turkish citizens and accelerated EU membership talks.

Turkey's EU Minister Ömer Çelik responded to Asselborn's comments Monday, stating that Ankara's post-coup actions are closer to efforts to "protect democracy during the fight against Nazis."