As New Zealand moves to stop spread of Christchurch shooter’s video, Turkey’s leader broadcasts it widely

A world leader is copping criticism after using sickening footage of the Christchurch massacre as part of his political re-election campaign.

Leaders around the world have expressed horror and sympathy for New Zealand in the wake of the Christchurch shootings. But Turkey’s president is taking a different approach.

Jacinda Ardern’s government has criticised President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for showing footage of the Christchurch mosque attacks at his election rallies.

As New Zealand authorities moved quickly to try to stop the spread of the shooter’s video, the Turkish leader used the sickening footage in his election rallies to tell people he would send home “in caskets” anyone who attempted a similar attack in his country.

He used the footage to portray the attack as a sign of rising Islamophobia that the West had ignored.

Mr Erdogan also displayed extracts from a 73-page manifesto posted online by the suspected attacker.

“We have been here for 1000 years and will be here until the apocalypse, God willing,” Mr Erdogan told an annual rally on Monday commemorating the 1915 Gallipoli campaign of World War I.

“You will not turn Istanbul into Constantinople,” he added — a reference to the city’s old name under its Christian Byzantine rulers.

“Your grandparents came here … and they returned in caskets,” he said. “Have no doubt we will send you back like your grandfathers.”

New Zealand Deputy PM Winston Peters slammed the politicisation of the tragedy.

New Zealand’s Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters protested on Monday that such politicisation of the massacre “imperils the future and safety of the New Zealand people and our people abroad, and it’s totally unfair”.

New Zealand authorities have warned that anyone sharing the footage faced prosecution, and Facebook removed the images from hundreds of thousands of its pages.

Mr Peters announced earlier today he would travel to Turkey this week at Istanbul’s request to attend a special meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation (OIC).

Three Turkish nationals were wounded in the rampage that killed 50 worshippers at two mosques in the southern New Zealand city of Christchurch on Friday.

The accused gunman, a self-avowed white supremacist from Australia, livestreamed video of much of the attack and spread a lengthy manifesto on social media claiming it was a strike against Muslim “invaders”.

The manifesto references Turkey and the minarets of Istanbul’s famed Hagia Sophia, now a museum, that was once a church before becoming a mosque during the Ottoman Empire.

Mr Peters said he had complained directly to visiting Turkish Vice-President Fuat Oktay and Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.

“We made it very clear that we oppose terrorism in whatever shape and form it might be and that we are for a free and open society,” Mr Peters said he told the Turkish officials.

“We had a long dialogue on the need for any other country, or Turkey for that matter, to ensure that our country, New Zealand, was not misrepresented.

“We did not start or bring about this disaster and they clearly understood that,” he said.

Speaking today of the upcoming OIC meeting in Istanbul, Mr Peters said: “This important event will allow New Zealand to join with our partners in standing against terrorism and speaking up for values such as understanding and religious tolerance.

“We are very clear that the terrorist attack in Christchurch, committed by a person who is not a New Zealander, is utterly contrary to our core beliefs.”

— with AFP

Originally published as As New Zealand moves to stop spread of Christchurch shooter’s video, Turkey’s leader broadcasts it widely