Wednesday 20 March 2019

Erdogan weighs in on Christchurch massacre


Christchurch terror attacks: Turkey's President calls for New Zealand to restore death penalty for shooter


20 March, 2019


President Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday (local time) called on New Zealand to restore the death penalty for the gunman who killed 50 people at two Christchurch mosques, warning that Turkey would make the attacker pay for his act if New Zealand did not.

Australian Brenton Tarrant, 28, a suspected white supremacist, was charged with murder on Saturday after a lone gunman opened fire at the two mosques during Muslim Friday prayers.

"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," Erdogan told an election rally of thousands in northern Turkey. He did not elaborate.

He said Turkey was wrong to have abolished the death penalty 15 years ago, and added that New Zealand should make legal arrangements so that the Christchurch gunman could face capital punishment.

"If the New Zealand parliament doesn't make this decision I will continue to argue this with them constantly. The necessary action needs to be taken," he said.

Erdogan is seeking to drum up support for his Islamist-rooted AK Party in March 31 local elections. At weekend election rallies he showed video footage of the shootings which the gunman had broadcast on Facebook, as well as extracts from a "manifesto" posted by the attacker and later taken down.

That earned a rebuke from New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters, who said he told Turkey's foreign minister and vice president that showing the video could endanger New Zealanders abroad.

Despite Peters' intervention, an extract from the manifesto was flashed up on a screen at Erdogan's rally again on Tuesday, as well as brief footage of the gunman entering one of the mosques and shooting as he approached the door.

Erdogan has said the gunman issued threats against Turkey and the president himself, and wanted to drive Turks from Turkey's northwestern, European region. Majority Muslim Turkey's largest city, Istanbul, is split between an Asian part east of the Bosphorus, and a European half to the west.

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. Erdogan 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.

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.

Reuters

Turkey's Erdogan Scolded For Airing New Zealand Massacre Footage As Political Prop

Zero Hedge,
19 March, 2019

 For the seventh time, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has aired footage of the deadly attack on two Christchurch mosques at election campaign events, sparking anger and disbelief among New Zealanders according to FT. 
The partially blurred video of accused gunman Brenton Tarrant entering a mosque and shooting Muslim worshippers was played at the rallies, while a caption read "A terrorist who is the enemy of Islam and the Turks." 
New Zealand foreign minister Winston Peters condemned the move - saying that it misrepresented his country and endangered Kiwis abroad. On Monday Peters warned Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay and foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu over Erdogan's decision to show the footage. The Turkish politicians had arrived in Christchurch on Sunday to express their  condolences. 
"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," said Peters, who added "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," according to the New Zealand Herald.
Peters stressed the fact that the suspected gunman, Brenton Tarrant, was a citizen of Australia. 
On Monday, Erdogan invoked the 1915-16 victory of Ottoman soldiers against the Brisish at Gallipoli  - connecting it to the New Zealand attack during monday commemorations. 
"One century on, they are still testing Turkey’s patience and determination," he said. "They are testing us with the messages they are giving from 16,500km away in New Zealand. This isn’t an individual act, this is organised."
Tarrant, 28, threatened Turkish people in a 74-page "manifesto" he published prior to Friday's attack on two mosques, which left 50 dead and at least 50 injured. The manifesto says that Turks should be allowed to live to the east of the Bosphorus Strait that marks the boundary between the continents of Europe and Asia - running through Istanbul. He threatened to kill Turks living "in European lands."
Citing these and other passages of the manifesto at the electoral rallies - which were broadcast on live television, Erdogan said that Tarrant's "real target" was Turkish people, the Turkish flag and the Turkish state. 
Mr Erdogan’s party is locked in a series of tight electoral battles to retain control of the nation’s most important cities amid a painful economic downturn.
Most pollsters predict a loss of support for his ruling Justice and Development party given the sky-high inflation and rising unemployment that has followed last year’s currency crisis.
Ozgur Unluhisarcikli, director of the Ankara office of the German Marshall Fund think-tank, said that given that backdrop it was little surprise that the Turkish president had seized on an attack that killed 50 Muslims during his campaigning. -FT
"The only way he can contain the loss of votes that is a result of economic voting behaviour is through political tribalism, or identity politics," said Unluhisarcikli. "Muslims being killed in a mosque by a white supremacist is definitely an incident that can be used to trigger [these] values." 
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