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AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER Scott Morrison condemned the “reckless” and “highly offensive” comments made by Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the wake of the Christchurch massacre.
Morrison has warned that he would consider “all options” in reviewing ties between the two countries.
On the campaign trail, the Turkish leader has used video footage of the terror attack that killed 50 people and painted it as part of an assault on Turkey and Islam.
He has also warned anti-Muslim Australians – like the suspected gunman – would be “sent back in coffins” like their grandfathers at Gallipoli, which was the scene of a blood-drenched WWI battle.
More than 8,000 Australians died fighting Turkish forces around the seaside town, a landmark moment in Australian history.
“Remarks have been made by the Turkish President Erdogan that I consider highly offensive to Australians and highly reckless in this very sensitive environment,” Morrison said after summoning the Turkish ambassador and dismissing the “excuses” offered.
“I am expecting, and I have asked, for these comments to be clarified, to be withdrawn,” said Morrison, who also faces an election challenge in the coming weeks.
I’ve asked for these comments, particularly their reporting of the misrepresented position of Australia on Turkish television, the state-sponsored broadcaster, to be taken down and I expect that to occur.
He described claims about Australia and New Zealand’s response to the white supremacist attack as “vile”.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern refused to be drawn on Erdogan’s comments, but said her deputy would be going to Turkey to “set the record straight”.
Morrison said Australians travelling to Turkey should exercise common sense and cautioned that travel advice for Turkey was under review.
“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,” Morrison said.
In fiery remarks, Morrison accused Erdogan of betraying the promise of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk – the father of the modern state and a revered figure in Turkey – to forge peace between the two countries.
A memorial at the battlefield carries Ataturk’s words:
There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets… after having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.
“Ataturk sought to transform his country into a modern nation and, an embracing nation, and I think these comments are at odds with that spirit,” Morrison said.
‘Totally unfair’
Erdogan had already been sharply rebuked by New Zealand for his comments and for using gruesome video shot by the Christchurch mosque gunman as an election campaign prop.
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”.
Peters announced yesterday that he would be travelling to Turkey this week at Istanbul’s request to attend a special meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.
Three Turkish nationals were wounded in the rampage that killed 50 worshippers at two mosques in the southern New Zealand city of Christchurch last Friday.
The accused gunman, a self-avowed white supremacist from Australia, live-streamed much of the attack and spread a 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.
“This is not an isolated event, it is something more organised,” Erdogan said during a campaign event on Monday in Canakkale in western Turkey.
They are testing us with the message they are sending us from New Zealand, 16,500 km (10,250 miles) from here.
Erdogan did not project the video at the Monday event.
Peters said he had complained directly to visiting Turkish Vice-President Fuat Oktay and Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.
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And Erdogan is pushing for full EU membership, visa free access for his citizens… Goodluck
@David Lee: There are 36 criteria required for EU membership. Before Erdogan, Turkey only achieved 5 of these criteria. Now they do not even qualify for 1 of the criteria.
@David Lee: Not going to happen, ever.
@David Lee: Turkey as an EU Member? No chance,this nut case Erdogan has no hope..Another more moderate leader ,maybe .But this seems a long time in the future.
@David Lee: the only country pushing for Turkey to be admitted to the EU, apart from Turkey, was the UK. Now with the UK, their main ally leaving, it’s become even less likely that Turkey will be admitted.
Erdogan, basically the Turkish version of Donald J. Trump!
@Dotty Dunleary: literally nothing alike. And nothing to do with trump.
@John Bonsay: Both idiots who strive off other idiots fears, they’re more alike than you think.
@Frankie Cappuccino: pretty sure he condemned the attacks in New Zealand, but anyway. Each to their own
@John Bonsay: Even Trump wouldn’t say anything that would escalate tensions that needlessly, even if he was well informed enough about history.
@Dotty Dunleary: I bet you are one of those commenters who have called Donald Trump an idiot.
Take a long hard look at yourself
@Dotty Dunleary: oh, they’re not the same. Erdogan has shut down social media on a number of occasions, constantly stifles freedom of the press, is engaged in a campaign of genocide and ethnic cleansing against Kurds, not just in Turkey, but wherever he can find them, is curtailing women’s rights and the rights of ethnic minorities, and is occupying chunks of a neighbouring country through an illegal land grab. Trump is an idiotic numpty. Erdogan is dangerous, racist, misogynistic, fascist and calculating.
@Brian Ó Dálaigh: Trump is racist, misogynistic, fails to condemn white supremacist groups, and inspires violence by them.
He has a terrible relationship with the free press and would like nothing better than to shut them down and ban large sections of the media from the White House press corps… apart from Fox News of course.
@Dotty Dunleary: Trump is all that you say. Yes, he’s a nasty person. But, Erdogan is a hell of a lot worse. While Trump is bad when it comes to race relations, I don’t see anywhere where he has actively passed laws or directives to wipe out entire ethnic minority villages like Erdogan has done. I don’t see where Trump has issued any apartheid laws for ethnic minorities as Erdogan has done with the Kurds. And I don’t see where Trump has invaded a neighbouring country and then started to administer it as if it were part of the US, as Turkey is doing.
@Brian Ó Dálaigh: You’ve said pretty much everything I had intended to say. I spoke to a Turkish acquaintance last year regarding Erdogan, believing he’d be unpopular to someone outside Turkey. Oh was I wrong? This man has basically been elected a dictator, they love his twisted views, his suppression of minority’s, his hatred of Kurds, etc. Religion in Turkey had been separated from the State, it had been a secular country, not any more. It’s not only Islamic but becoming somewhat extremist. With the biggest military in the region and a willingness to use them this can’t end well.
@Brian Ó Dálaigh: Two peas in a pod! And Trump admires strong arm leaders like Erdogan.
I couldn’t even draw one similarity between Erdogan and Trumps predecessor.
@Dotty Dunleary: yet despite all you’ve said, trump and his targeted sanctions are damaging the Turkish economy and currency
@Dotty Dunleary: No way.Erdogan is an out and out dictator.Trump is a wannabee dictator but thanks to the democratic process Trump will never be.
@Billy McNamara: ‘a wannabee dictator’ good god ive read some rubbish comments on here before but that takes the biscuit. I would like to see you back your claims up with facts and remember to check to see if any other US presidents never done similar or worse. A water tight constructive argument will be required not just a rant because all your social media friends don’t like Trump and you want likes
@WreckDefier: I’m one of those who has called a Trump an idiot, I have had a long hard look at myself and the situation hasn’t changed, Trump is still an idiot!
There is now and historically a lot more perscuation of Christians in Turkey than there is attacks on Muslims in Australia….
@iComment: Don’t mention the Armenian genocide…Erdogan’s henchmen will come looking for you.
Travel advice for Turkey… don’t go
THis guys family sell ISIS oil He locks up Journalists. He has told turks in Germany not to integrate just to mention a few of his sins and the EU want Turkey to Join
@John Rownano: The EU is a club of decadent infidel crusaders which is doomed to fall to the relentless rise of Islam! Can we join, huh, huh, can we? – Erdogan
@John Rownano: if the eu wanted turkey to join, they’d be a member. Their is massive opposition and they don’t come close to meeting the criteria. Do some homework
This man has the power to radicalize hundreds of thousands, a classic dictator. Would be very wary
@Dill Funk: I think Turkey under Erdogan is quickly becoming a very insular and repressive country, he’s encouraging extremism and hatred, which is what this is all about. At the end of the day one group hating another enough to attack them and kill them isn’t about religion it’s about hatred. It’s also worth bearing in mind that Turkey has one of the biggest militaries in the world, they’re no pushover.
Wonder does he have anything to say on the Armenian genocide or are they still denying that? or perhaps the treatment of the Kurds?
Since 9/11 attacks perpetrated by Islamic terrorists on all 5 continents have resulted in the murder, torture, shooting, beheading, rape, burning alive of thousands of men women and children, I don’t remember Mr Erdoğan making any announcements about these.
He’s slowly turning turkey into an Islamic state, shame really it’s a lovely country.
He hadnt much to say about the almost countless attacks by muslims against civilians in Europe over the past few years. Funny that
I prefer to remember these words when considering Turkish/Austrailian relations after Gallipoli. Don’t let dictators words and hateful terrorists win.
“Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives … You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours … You, the mothers who sent their sons from faraway countries, wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.”
@Clifford Brennan: For anyone interested, Netflix has a good, sober, comprehensive award-winning documentary about Gallipoli, narrated by Sam Neill and Jeremy Irons, and it was made by the Turks.
@Clifford Brennan: that would have been Ataturk who wiped the Armenians and Greeks from Turkey ? He was full of sxxt too just in a different way
If the shoe were on the other foot and Islamist were been targeted for the past 20 years like any non believer of this religion is currently, I wonder would they just sit pacifly and wait to be butchered like us in the West, don’t think so somehow.
@Philip Siggins: Are we waiting to be butchered now? Nobody told me.
“And the young people asked, what are they marching for? And I asked myself the same question.”
How did two countries were so far away from each other as Turkey and Australia get into a fight? Obviously Australia was in the British Empire, Turkey’s motives for siding with Germany and Austria, the country that had reclaimed much of the Ottoman Empire for Christianity in the past generation seem more mysterious to me. Presumably they thought the Axis powers were going to win and that they’d be given a big chunk of the British Empire as a reward, and they didn’t waste any time massacaring a million Armenians as soon as the war started.
The only good thing to come of Turkey’s involvement in WW1 was the breakup of the Ottoman Empire and the secularization program under Ataturk but Erdogan seems to yearn for the days of what was quite a brutal empire.
@Fifty Shades of Sé:
Russia had done more to destabilize the Ottoman Empire in the decades before WWI than Austria, so it was probably a case of “the enemy of my enemy”.
But it wasn’t a multi-party alliance, like the Triple Alliance. It was only between the German and Ottoman empires. And it only came into being after the war started.
Turkey is a dump anyway when you get there all you can smell is neglect. In the nicest way possible.
The Australian prime minister should worry more about the rise of white nationalist terrorists in his own country than how their intended victims may retaliate.
@Rochelle: So should he totally disregard any fear of retaliatory action?
@Rochelle: either you are a excellent troll or very simple
@ParSim: You could argue that making a big deal out of these comments makes tensions rise and retaliatory attacks more likely
@ParSim: Any leaders focus should be on preventing and condemning terrorism.
@Rochelle: Erdogan denies the Armenian genocide, should he not be questioned on that?
@Rochelle: “their intended victims” have got their retaliation in first, on many, many occasions!
@Fergus Sheahan: what countries officially recognise the Armenian genocide?
@Cormac Ó Braonáin: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenian_Genocide_recognition
@Aram Hakhumyan: so only 29 countries(we are not one of them) recognise it. My point is not about whether it happened or not. It’s to do with the idea that we should probably look closer to home about recognising it before pointing fingers at others.
Why would turkey want to join
a block they see as the infidel regardless of economics
This guy is descending into the image of a perfect despot – cut from the cloth of Putin. He’ll be at war soon with Syria.
When are Turkey joining the EU ?
@John Walsh: Won’t be anytime soon.
@Fifty Shades of Sé:
Russia had done more to destabilize the Ottoman Empire in the decades before WWI than Austria, so it was probably a case of “the enemy of my enemy”.
But it wasn’t a multi-party alliance, like the Triple Alliance. It was only between the German and Ottoman empires. And it only came into being after the war started.
have your say