Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has replayed graphic footage of New Zealand's worst mass shooting at an election rally, just hours after Foreign Minister Winston Peters met him and said he believed the controversial showings had stopped.
Peters arrived in Istanbul on Friday to talk to Erdogan about the footage and comments he has made on the shooting of 50 people at mosques in Christchurch a week ago, which have drawn condemnation from New Zealand and Australia.
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But Peters emerged from a brief meeting with Erdogan and struck a conciliatory tone, saying that he had not raised at the meeting some of the most controversial comments the Turkish leader has made at rallies.
He also said that he had not asked Erdogan to stop showing the videos.
"I did not ask that question because I felt that I did not have to ask it, because they are not doing that anymore," Peters told reporters after attending a meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).
Two hours later, however, Erdogan paused his speech at an election rally in the central province of Konya so that the audience could watch the video footage of the shootings that the alleged gunman had broadcast on Facebook on March 15.
The video, which governments and social media sites have attempted to take down since the incident, was blurred but the gun shots were heard. It's been deemed illegal to show, or even possess a copy of, in New Zealand.
Erdogan is seeking to drum up support for his Islamist-rooted AK Party in March 31 local elections. He has shown different versions of the video about a dozen times throughout the week, including on Thursday.
"The New Zealand deputy Prime Minister came with a delegation and we had a chance to talk before coming here. We discussed and agreed upon what we should do," Erdogan told supporters in Konya without elaborating.
In rallies across Turkey, Erdogan has since called on New Zealand to restore the death penalty and said Turkey would make the suspected attacker pay if that country did not.
Referring to a "manifesto" posted online by the attacker, he said Turkey will return "in coffins" anyone who tried to take the battle to Istanbul.
Peters told reporters he had not addressed these comments with Erdogan because he did not think it would serve a "long-term peaceful purpose", adding that he had received assurances regarding the safety of New Zealanders visiting Turkey.
In an address to leaders of Muslim countries attending the OIC meeting, including Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Turkey, Peters defended New Zealand's response to the shooting.
"This person will face the full force of New Zealand law, and will spend the rest of his life in isolation in a New Zealand prison," Peters said, adding later that "misinterpretations" in the days following the shooting had been cleared up following his meeting with Erdogan and the OIC.
Before leaving Istanbul to attend the election rally, Erdogan told the OIC that the empathy and reaction displayed by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern since the incident "should be an example to world leaders".
Reuters / Newshub.
