Tensions soar over Erdogan threats
Australia’s national security agencies are reviewing whether it is safe to travel to Gallipoli for Anzac Day services while their prime minister, Scott Morrison, considers expelling Turkey’s ambassador.
Morrison was considering the expulsion over ‘‘highly offensive and highly reckless’’ comments made at a political rally by Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Morrison met with the ambassador at Australia’s Parliament House yesterday morning, where he asked for Erdogan to withdraw the remarks made overnight.
‘‘You heinously killed 50 of our siblings. You will pay for this,’’ Erdogan was reported as saying at the rally, in which he also aired segments of the livestream shared to Facebook by the accused Christchurch gunman.
Erdogan also called on New Zealand to hand the accused the death penalty, and said that any anti-Muslim attacks in his own country would result in the offenders going home ‘‘in caskets’’.
‘‘Your grandparents came here ... and they returned in caskets,’’ Erdogan said, referencing the thousands of Australian and New Zealand soldiers who died during the Gallipoli Campaign in Turkey during World War I.
‘‘Have no doubt we will send you back like your grandfathers.’’
NZ Foreign Minister Winston Peters said earlier this week that he told his Turkish counterpart the video doesn’t represent New Zealand. Peters is due in Turkey later this week to attend a meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation in Istanbul as an observer.
The New Zealand Embassy in Ankara also said Peters had raised the
‘‘You heinously killed 50 of our siblings. You will pay for this.’’ Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey President
issue with a Turkish delegation in New Zealand. It said the embassy in Ankara and as well as other embassies worldwide had requested that media outlets not show the footage.
Morrison was wary of heightening tensions just one month out from Anzac Day, but told reporters that Turkey’s official safe travel status was under review just weeks before hundreds of Australians are set to flock to the country for memorial ceremonies. ‘‘They insult the memory of our Anzacs,’’ Morrison said. ‘‘It was highly offensive to Australians and highly reckless.’’
Morrison said he did not accept that the president’s comments reflected the feeling of the people of Turkey and ‘‘all options were on the table’’ in terms of Australia’s response.
Morrison met with the Turkish ambassador Korhan Karakoc at Parliament House yesterday morning. ‘‘I do not accept the excuses that have been offered for those comments,’’ he said.
Erdogan, who is under two weeks away from a federal election, made the comments at an election rally in northern Turkey while touring the country ahead of a March 31 election. He has been president since 2014, and was prime minister for the 11 years prior.