PM demands apology from Turkish President over warnings Australians would be sent ‘back in coffins’
Scott Morrison demands an apology from the Turkish President after he warned Australians would return “in coffins” like the Anzacs.
Scott Morrison says Turkey’s President has insulted the ANZAC legacy by warning “anti-Muslim Australians” would return in coffins “like their grandfathers” in the wake of the Christchurch massacre.
After he summoned the Turkish ambassador to an urgent meeting in Canberra this morning, the Prime Minister said “all options are on the table” in reviewing ties with Turkey.
Travel advice for Australians heading to Turkey for Anzac Day is also now under review after the Prime Minister said he did not accept the “excuses” given to him this morning by Turkish Ambassador to Australia, Korhan Karakoc.
Mr Morrison, who advised Australians in Turkey to be “cautious”, demanded President Recep Teyyip Erdogan apologise for his comments.
“Remarks have been made by Turkish President Erdogan that I consider highly offensive to Australians, and highly reckless in this very sensitive environment,” Mr Morrison said in Canberra after his meeting with the ambassador.
“They are offensive, because they insult the memory of our Anzacs and they violate the pledge that is etched in the stone at Gallipoli, of the promise of Ataturk to the mothers of our Anzacs. The excuses I don’t accept are that things get said in the heat of the moment.’’
Foreign Minister Marise Payne will contact Turkey’s foreign minister later today.
Mr Karakoc said he and the PM shared “a frank exchange” as he left the meeting at Parliament House.
Mr Erdogan had alleged Australian Brenton Tarrant was targeting Turkey during his attack on two Christchurch mosques, and warned anti-Muslim Australians that if they visit his country they will return home in coffins like their grandfathers did after Gallipoli.
Speaking at a campaign rally in the northern town of Eregli, Mr Erdogan also criticised New Zealand and Australia for sending troops to Turkey in the World War I Gallipoli campaign, claiming their motive was anti-Islam-oriented.
“What business did you have here? We had no issues with you, why did you come all the way over here?” Mr Erdogan said. “The only reason: we’re Muslim, and they’re Christian.”
Mr Morrison said leaders of Australia’s Turkish community had told him they were disappointed in Presiden Erdogan. “I don’t think it does reflect the views of the Turkish people, or certainly of Turkish Australians,” Mr Morrison said. “I can tell you that all options are on the table. But my actions here are to be measured, to de-escalate, to not engage in a cycle of recklessness, but to engage in a positive spirit and to focus on the key issue before us.”
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said her foreign minister Winston Peters will be travelling to Turkey to “set the record straight” after the president’s comments. “I want to acknowledge that we have, for decades, gone to Gallipoli to acknowledge that we want to be a world free of war, of hatred and violence. That is, you know, what many New Zealanders make that pilgrimage for,” she said in Wellington today.
“He is going there to set the record straight. That is an opportunity that he should take up.
“Now, we have to make sure that what is reflected is an accurate portrayal of New Zealand and New Zealanders. Indeed, of our Muslim community as well. And that is his intent.”
Turkey’s Vice President led a delegation to New Zealand after last Friday’s attacks and Ms Ardern said that group from President Erdogan’s government had expressed “solidarity” with her country at the time.
Labor leader Bill Shorten said Mr Erdogan’s “foolish and offensive” remarks stoked disunity and hatred. “Intemperate and regrettable remarks like this only play into the hands of those who seek to divide. They do not protect the peace and security of any nation,” Mr Shorten said.
“Many thousands of Australians and New Zealanders will shortly be heading to Turkey to commemorate the shared sacrifice of our two nations at Gallipoli, and 100 years of friendship since. It is up to all leaders of all countries to stand against hate, to demonstrate that unity makes us stronger, that hope can triumph over fear, and that love is greater than hate.”
Mr Shorten urged Turkey’s leaders to heed to words of the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, inscribed at Anzac Cove: “You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. You, the mothers who sent their sons from faraway countries, wipe away your tears… After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.”
‘You will go home in coffins’
In a reference to the World War I campaign, Mr Erdogan suggested that Australians who travel to Turkey with anti-Muslim sentiments would be sent back in coffins, “like their grandfathers’’ were during the Gallipoli campaign.
He made the comments in Canakkale province, northwestern Turkey which is home to the historic battlefields, on the anniversary of a World War I Turkish naval victory.
Mr Erdogan has based his belief about Tarrant’s anti-Turkish agenda on the writing on the stock of the weapons and his race-hate manifesto that referenced Turkey. “The enemies of Muslims have shown that they continue to hate us. They are testing us from 16,500km away,” Mr Erdogan said.
The Turkish President has repeatedly referenced the murder of the 50 Muslim worshippers in Christchurch while on the campaign trail for local elections. Three Turks were wounded in Friday’s attack.
Mr Erdogan called on New Zealand to restore the death penalty for the gunman. “If New Zealand fails to hold the attacker accountable, one way or another we will hold him to account,” he said.
“You heinously killed 50 of our siblings. You will pay for this. If New Zealand doesn’t make you, we know how to make you pay one way or another.”
A senior Turkish security source said Tarrant entered Turkey twice in 2016 — for a week in March and for more than a month in September. Turkish authorities have begun investigating everything from hotel records to camera footage to try to ascertain the reason for his visits, the source said.
Since the weekend, the Turkish leader has been using clips of the Christchurch attack to denounce Islamophobia during campaign rallies, as he tries to stoke nationalist and religious sentiments ahead of the March 31 local elections. The video, which was blurred but had clear sounds of automatic gunfire, has been shown to thousands of people at the rallies and aired live on Turkish television, despite efforts by New Zealand to halt its spread
New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters said such politicisation of the massacre “imperils the future and safety of the New Zealand people and our people abroad, and it’s totally unfair”.
Mr Peters said he had complained to visiting Turkish Vice-President Fuat Oktay and Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu. Mr Peters is due in Turkey later this week to attend a meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation in Istanbul as an observer.
Turkey’s main opposition party has also criticised Mr Erdogan for showing the clip “for the sake of (winning) three or five votes” at the elections.
Hundreds of New Zealanders and Australians travel to Canakkale each year for Anzac Day on April 25, to mark the start of the battle of Gallipoli and to commemorate the dead.
Mr Erdogan’s AK Party, which has dominated Turkish politics for more than 16 years, is battling for votes as the economy tips into recession after years of strong growth.
He has cast the local elections as a “matter of survival” in the face of threats including Kurdish militants, Islamophobia and incidents such as the New Zealand shootings.
The row came as New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she would do everything in her power to deny Tarrant a platform for his views, after he dismissed his lawyer and opted to represent himself at his trial.
She also urged the public to follow her lead and to avoid giving the gunman the fame he craved.
“I implore you: speak the names of those who were lost, rather than the name of the man who took them,” she said. “He may have sought notoriety, but we in New Zealand will give him nothing, not even his name.”
Additional reporting: Ben Packham, Charles Miranda, AP, AFP
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