ROME -Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni told Turkey Monday "freedom of speech cannot be renounced," denouncing arrests ordered by Turkish President Erdogan of dozens of journalists and opposition figures.

 "Italy has always been in the front row in keeping the dialogue between the European Union and Turkey open," Gentolini said in a twitter message during a meeting of European foreign ministers in Brussels, "But the freedom of expression is a value that cannot be renounced."

  Speaking to reporters in Brussels after the meeting in Brussels Gentiloni added: "we don't want to give lessons to anyone, but we want to recall that for the European Union freedom of expression is among the fundamental principles of the Union."

 Gentiloni said the EU foreign ministers had not discussed the arrests in Turkey, but he said that Italy is "a country that has its cards in order" in its good relations with Turkey and that 'nobody can accuse it of having prejeudiced attitudes" given that Rome "always fought" for increased relations between Ankara and the EU.

  Also Monday the president of the Parliamentary Italy-Turkey commission in Rome, Caterina Pes, an MP from PRiem Minister Matteo Renzi's democratic Party, said "I hope that immediate clarity is made on the episode of the arrests and round up of journalists and politicians in what the Turkish daily Zeman called 'the black Sunday' of gagging the press."

 The head of the National Federation of the Italian Press, Franco Siddi, said Monday that "what happened in Turkey, with the arrest of 32 journalists, editors and media managers is distrubing, it is an unacceptable attack on the freedom of the press."

 "What happened is the latest act of scorn for journalism after already in the past scores of journalists and writers were put in prison unjustly without having committed any crime."

 "Italian and world journalism will not let this intolerable persecution pass in silence," the head of the Italian journalists' trade union said.