New Zealand minister to visit Turkey to confront Erdogan

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said yesterday that Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Turkey to “confront” comments made by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on the killing of at least 50 people at mosques in Christchurch. Australian Brenton Tarrant, 28, a suspected white supremacist, was charged with murder on Saturday following a terror attack at the two mosques during Friday prayers.

Erdogan - who is seeking to drum up support for his Islamist-rooted AK Party on March 31 local elections - said Turkey would make the suspected attacker pay if New Zealand did not. Speaking at a campaign rally in the northern town of Eregli, Erdogan criticized New Zealand and Australia for sending troops to Turkey in the World War I Gallipoli campaign, claiming their motive was anti-Islam-oriented.