Erdogan: we’ll put anti-islam Westerners in coffins
Turkish president causes anger with rally invoking massacre in Christchurch and Gallipoli campaign
TURKEY’S president has sparked a diplomatic confrontation with Australia and New Zealand after seizing on the Christchurch massacre to threaten to send home anti-muslim Westerners “in coffins”, like the First World War soldiers killed at Gallipoli.
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan put the killings in New Zealand last Friday at the centre of his campaigning ahead of forthcoming local elections and has been playing footage of last week’s massacre before audiences at his rallies.
In a speech near the site where thousands of New Zealand and Australian troops were buried after the Battle of Gallipoli in 1915, Mr Erdoğan said the Christchurch killer and First World War soldiers were both motivated by anti-islamic sentiments.
“Your grandfathers came and saw that we’re here. Then some of them walked back, while others left in coffins,” Mr Erdoğan said. “If you come with the same intention, we’ll be waiting for you.”
His comments were met with fury in Australia, where Scott Morrison, the prime minister, summoned Turkey’s ambassador and demanded Mr Erdoğan retract his remarks.
“Remarks have been made by the Turkish President Erdoğan that I consider highly offensive to Australians, and highly reckless in this very sensitive environment,” Mr Morrison said.
“I will wait to see what the response is from the Turkish government before taking further action, but I can tell you that all options are on the table.”
Mr Morrison said Australia was reviewing its travel advice for Turkey. Thousands of Australians and New Zealanders are expected in Turkey on April 25 to commemorate Anzac Day, marking the first landings in Gallipoli.
Around 8,000 Australians and nearly 3,000 New Zealanders died during the disastrous year-long campaign. The final death toll for both sides reached 130,000.
Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand’s prime minister, said she was dispatching Winston Peters, her deputy, to Turkey in connection with Mr Erdoğan’s comments about the massacre that left 50 people dead at the hands of a white supremacist gunman.
“He is going there to set the record straight, face-to-face,” Ms Ardern said.
Mr Erdoğan had earlier threatened: “If New Zealand fails to hold the attacker accountable, one way or another we will hold him to account.”
Yesterday, in an attempt to defuse the row, a spokesman for the president said his remarks had been taken “out of context”. Meanwhile, in New Zealand, a father and son who had fled war-torn Syria to find a better life there were buried. Hundreds of people gathered to mourn the victims of the far-right terrorist Brenton Tarrant.
Khalid Mustafa, 44, and Hamza Mustafa, 15 were laid to rest five days after Tarrant, an Australian white supremacist, killed 50 worshippers at two mosques. Hamza Mustafa’s younger brother, 13-year-old Zaed, who was wounded in the arm and leg during the attack, attended the funeral.
A British survivor of the attack has said he does not know how he escaped “without a scratch”. Nathan Smith, who converted to Islam after moving to New Zealand 13 years ago, was worshipping in the Al Noor mosque when the gunman struck.
The father-of-three, originally from Poole in Dorset, said he first thought the shooting was “firecrackers” or an “electrical problem”. “Then, all of a sudden it was becoming louder and louder,” he told the BBC.
“The windows started going out, I could see people just falling forward. People standing up and just falling.” He added: “Fifty people, dead. The bodies were stacked on top of each other. People just falling. The windows going out. I can’t explain it. How I got out? I just don’t know. All my friends dead and me not a scratch.”
Mr Smith said he managed to escape through the back of the mosque. He described how he then found a young woman lying in the road nearby.
Mr Smith said: “I didn’t know her name ... I’m just holding her, I don’t know why but I’m stroking her back – she’s already dead.”
‘If New Zealand fails to hold the attacker accountable, one way or another we will hold him to account’