The New Zealand government intends to confront Turkey when the foreign minister visits Istanbul this week after its president made inflammatory remarks sparked by the shooting deaths of 50 Muslims.
A diplomatic upset is brewing after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said any Australians or New Zealanders who came to Turkey with anti-Muslim sentiments would be sent back in a coffin "like your grandfathers were" during the WWI Gallipoli campaign.
"Our deputy prime minister will be confronting those comments in Turkey," Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told reporters on Wednesday in Christchurch.
Deputy Prime Minister and foreign minister Winston Peters is to attend a meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation as an observer.
Erdogan used a political rally to play parts of video, live-streamed by the gunman who shot 50 people in two Christchurch mosques to Facebook, as a tool to stoke nationalist and religious sentiment before local elections on March 31.
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He also referred to the battle on the Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey involving thousands of Australians and New Zealanders soldiers.
"Your grandparents came, some of them returned in coffins," he told the rally in northern Turkey.
"If you come as well, like your grandfathers, be sure that you will be gone like your grandfathers."
Ardern said thousands of New Zealanders and Australians had made the journey to Gallipoli on Anzac Day to remember those who died in battle.
She rejected suggestions the president's comments would change the long term relationship between NZ and Turkey.
"I do not accept that we will see the long-term change in our relationship. It is so deeply entrenched. They cared for our fallen," she said of Turkey.
"Our Deputy Prime Minister is travelling (there) and, as he has said, he is setting the record straight, face-to-face," Ardern said.
Australia has already made its concerns known in regard to the president's remarks, which Prime Minister Scott Morrison described as "highly offensive".
Australia has now warned its citizens planning to travel to Turkey for Anzac Day to exercise caution and await further advice.
