Erdogan shows New Zealand attack video in weekend
rallies
ISTANBUL
(AP) — Turkey’s president showed parts of a video taken by the attacker who
killed 50 people at two mosques in New Zealand to comment on what he called
rising Islamophobia.
President
Recep Tayyip Erdogan showed the clips over the weekend during campaign rallies
for March 31 local elections. The video, which was blurred but had clear sounds
of automatic gunfire, was shown to thousands of people at the rallies and was
aired live on Turkish television.
Erdogan
used the video to comment on attacks on Islam and rising Islamophobia. He
accused the Western world for not calling the attack on the two Christchurch
mosques “Christian terror,” when acts committed by Muslims are called “Islamic
terror.”
He also
referred to a manifesto by the suspected attacker, Brenton Tarrant, in which he
threatened Turks and vowed to make Istanbul “Christian owned once more.”
Erdogan
then shifted his rhetoric to slamming the main opposition’s leader, as is
common in all of his campaign rallies. He criticized the Republican People’s
Party’s Kemal Kilicdaroglu for blaming Islam and Muslims for the attack.
The
opposition leader had condemned the attack on Friday and also said the Islamic
world should look within itself to understand the causes of terrorism.
Faik
Oztrak, the vice chairman of the Republic People’s Party, or CHP, accused
Erdogan of using the video as “propaganda materials for the sake of three or
five votes.” His comments were carried by the official Anadolu news agency
Sunday.
New
Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters said Monday that he told his Turkish
counterpart and Erdogan’s vice president, who were visiting the country, that
the video doesn’t represent New Zealand. He said it could also endanger New
Zealanders.
Facebook
said it removed 1.5 million videos of the New Zealand shootings during the
first 24 hours after the massacre.
Sumber : The Star
..
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.