Turkish president stokes anti-western rhetoric over New Zealand killings

Hintz offered a similar assessment.

“Erdogan’s close ties with media groups and influence over an estimated 90 percent of news production allowed him to shield many Turks from the country’s debt and lira crises, but long lines and rotting vegetables make Turkey’s economic turmoil starkly apparent,” Hintz said. “Absent a narrative of growth, Erdogan resorts to stoking anti-Western sentiments in the hopes that nationalist emotions rather than pocketbook concerns will prevail at the polls.”

During a televised meeting Monday, Erdogan accused the Western media and European leaders of an “insidious” silence over the mosque attacks, accusing the European Union of being an “enemy of Islam.”

“Erdogan still plays the foreign conspiracy angle at his election rallies,” said analyst Atilla Yesilada of Global Source Partners. Ankara has for decades been seeking to join the EU, blaming the delay on prejudice on the grounds that Turkey is a Muslim country. Brussels maintains the delay is due to Ankara’s failure to comply with membership requirements, in particular over human rights.

‘Reviving the battlefield memories’

Erdogan’s escalating rhetoric threatens to cast a shadow over commemorations marking the Gallipoli Campaign during World War I. The ill-fated British-led invasion of the then-Ottoman empire sought to create a bridgehead opening the way to capture Istanbul. The campaign ended in defeat with large numbers of Australians and New Zealanders, along with Turks, killed. The March remembrance ceremonies at the battle sites traditionally draw large numbers of Australians and New Zealanders.

At a Gallipoli memorial Monday, Erdogan highlighted a manifesto posted online by the gunman, in which the suspect called for Turks to be driven out of Istanbul.

“You will not turn Istanbul into Constantinople,” Erdogan said, referring to the city’s name under its Christian Byzantine rulers before Muslim Ottomans conquered it in 1453.

“Your grandparents came here … and they returned in caskets,” he said. “Have no doubt we will send you back like your grandfathers,” he added.

The Gallipoli commemorations are traditionally a symbol of goodwill among Turkey, New Zealand and Australia, with the World War I campaign widely seen as a defining moment in the formation of all three countries.

“Erdogan has managed to overturn this peaceful rhetoric of never again [a conflict],” Aktar said. “He is reviving the battlefield memories, for more antagonism against the Western world.”

Social media pushback

On social media, there is a strong pushback against the Turkish president’s rhetoric. Many Turks posted a well-known quote of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, speaking after the Gallipoli Campaign.

“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 [a reference to enemy soldiers] and the Mehmets [Turkish soldiers] to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours.”

Ataturk was at the forefront of leading the defense of Gallipoli, a success that propelled him to found the secular republic.

Analysts say Erdogan likely is calculating that the current controversy can only serve as a useful distraction from the country’s economic woes.

“Whatever the potential electoral benefit, we are seeing across the globe that the societal cost of drawing on fear and hatred continues to take its polarizing toll long after polls close,” Hintz said.

The reopening of the traditional deep political divide between Erdogan supporters and critics usually consolidates the president’s voting base, which opinion polls indicate is starting to weaken over dissatisfaction from rising prices and unemployment.