Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been criticised for telling a crying child she would be wrapped in the Turkish flag, "God willing", if she were martyred in battle.
The president was speaking at a provincial rally in support of Turkey's troops in Syria, which was broadcast live on state television.
The child, six-year-old Amine Tiras, was dressed in the uniform of a military cadet.
When the president spotted her in the audience, she saluted but began to cry as she was beckoned on stage.
Mr Erdogan kissed the girl on both cheeks as she stood crying on the stage.
"Look what you see here! Girl, what are you doing here? We have our maroon berets here, but maroon berets never cry," he told her, referring to the uniforms of the Turkish Special Operations Forces.
"Her Turkish flag is in her pocket. If she becomes a martyr, God willing, she will be wrapped with it," the New York Times reports Mr Erdogan saying.
"She is ready for everything, aren't you?"
Supporters of Mr Erdogan's Justice and Development Party at the rally appeared to cheer in response.
But outrage built as the video circulated on social media over the weekend, with some Turkish social media users calling it "child abuse".
Another Turkish user wrote on Twitter, "It's a shame, it's very bad. She's just a child, you don't wish her dead and you don't say 'God willing' for that!"
"Glorifying children’s deaths? Promoting child soldiers? Sick," Andrew Stroehlein, from Human Rights Watch in Europe, tweeted.
International criticism has grown, too, with some observers likening the incident to Adolf Hitler's use of children in militarist propaganda.
Mr Erdogan has heavily promoted the Turkish campaign in Syria with nationalist and militarist slogans, calling every Turkish soldier fallen in battle a martyr.
