It is unfortunate Turkish president Recep Tayyap Erdogan has chosen to exploit the Christchurch tragedy in a bid to bolster his electoral prospects.
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Erdogan, one of the first Islamist Turkish leaders since the creation of the secular Turkish state by Mustafa Kamal Ataturk after World War I, is due to go to the polls at the end of this month.
Despite his ongoing campaign to stamp out criticism and dissent, his government's primacy is under threat as a result of a worsening economic outlook.
Erdogan's AK party, which has dominated Turkish politics for most of this century, is desperate to cling to power. This is why the out-spoken and notably anti-western president has chosen to politicise the events of last Friday.
In recent days he has called on New Zealand to reintroduce the death penalty, played some of the footage of the slaughter the alleged killer streamed on social media at his political rallies, and even quoted from the gunman's "manifesto" to prove Turkey itself was under attack.
"They are testing us from 16,500 km away, from New Zealand, with the messages they are giving from there," he said at a rally on the Gallipoli peninsula on Monday. "This isn't an individual act, this is organised".
Erdogan, who has warned that any Australians who went to Turkey with hate in their hearts would be killed, has also claimed the Gallipoli landings of 1915 were anti-Islamic, not strategic.
Speaking just over a month out from Anzac Day, when tens of thousands of Australians and New Zealanders are expected to converge on Anzac Cove to pay their respects to both the Allied and the Turkish dead, he said: "Your grandparents came here... and they returned in caskets. Have no doubt we will send you back like your grandfathers".
The remark was as inaccurate as it was inflammatory. The only Australian body repatriated from the Gallipoli campaign was that of Major General Sir William Throsby Bridges, the first commandant of Duntroon and the commander of the AIF contingent.
The vast majority of the Anzac dead were buried on the peninsula where they remain.
That was clearly recognised in a famous quote of unknown origin often attributed to Ataturk.
"Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives [are] now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and Mehmets to us where they lay side by side here in this country of ours... your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace."
While these words may, or may not, have been penned by Ataturk himself, they did set the tone for warm and friendly relations between Australia and Turkey for almost a century.
It is, as Prime Minister Scott Morrison told the Turkish ambassador on Wednesday, offensive and reckless for Erdogan to risk trashing this relationship.
If, as many believe, Gallipoli was where a truly united Australia was born, the same is true for modern Turkey. President Erdogan is disrespecting a heritage that is sacred to both our peoples.
We can only hope the Anzac commemoration to be held a little over a month from now is not threatened as a consequence.
